Diversity studies on sugarloaf pineapple variety

2015

english

Sugar loaf is one of the export varieties of pineapple known for many decades and is still under cultivation. Its production as land races in many West African countries precludes its horticultural advantages of homogeneity and uniformity. Identification of variability among clones is key to maintenance and utilization of its horticultural homogeneity for the export market and provides genetic resources for improvement. The aim of this work was to characterize the sugarloaf pineapple variety in Ghana to determine the extent of genetic variability and to establish the relationship among clones. In all 350 clones were collected from the major growing areas in Ghana. These were planted in situ at the CSIR-Crops Research Institute. Characterization was done using 24 standard agro morphological descriptors developed by IBPGR. Data were subjected to multivariate analysis using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and clustering criterion. Variability was obtained in 16 out of the 24 measured characters suggesting a high degree of morphological polymorphism among the clones. There was emergence of distinct morphotypes among clones collected from three districts. The poor post-harvest outcome of the sugar loaf pineapple could mainly be due to non-uniformity in fruit size and fruit weight. It is also suggested that molecular characterization be used to confirm the morphological characterization.

Baafi, E.; Osei, M. K.; Agyeman, A.; Afriyie, J.