Genetic Improvement of Beta Carotene Content

This book was conducted to improve farmers' preferred cassava cultivars with high carotene content in Nigeria. A participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and sensory evaluation was conducted in Abia, Imo and Ebonyi states of Nigeria to identify farmer's and consumer's adoption challenges and preferences for cassava with yellow storage roots. High production cost, low yield, drudgery in peeling and processing, pests and diseases were identified as major challenges to cassava adoption. TMS 01-1368, TMS 05-1636 and TMS 05-0473 were combined with farmers cultivars TMS 98-0002, TMS 97-2205 and TMS 98-0505 with high dry matter content, high yielding and resistant to pests and diseases. Using 36 SSRs markers, the genetic distance between 6 cassava cultivars used as parents (3 yellow and 3 white fleshed roots) were found to be high, ranging from 0.55 to 0.77 for the TMS 98/0505 by TMS 98/0002 and TMS 98/0505 by TMS 05/1636 crosses respectively.