Evaluation of Cowpea Magic Population for Resistance to False Rust

Abstract

Cowpea is one of the most important food crops in Africa, it is an importance source of food for man feed for animals and is traded for income. In Uganda, cowpea production is constrained by biotic and abiotic factors; among the biotic factors is Yellow blister disease which causes yield loss for highly susceptible varieties. The cowpea breeding programme has introduced new lines (MAGIC) population to broaden its existing germplasm base and increase cowpea yield through different strategies including improvement of genetic resistance to fungal and viral diseases. The genotypes have very good agronomic traits however their reaction to false rust disease has not been determined. Therefore the general objective of this study was to contribute knowledge towards improvement of cowpea yields through evaluating cowpea MAGIC population for false rust resistance and the specific objectives to determine cowpea lines resistant to false rust disease from the MAGIC population and to determine the relationship between false rust and the yield performance of the MAGIC cowpea lines under natural conditions. The study was conducted at Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo (MUARIK) in central Uganda. A Multiparent advanced generation inter cross (MAGIC) cowpea population has been evaluated for resistance to false rust disease. Out of the 305 genotypes, 178 distinct lines are available for this study. These together with 4 landrace lines will be evaluated. The experimental design was laid out in a 14 x 13 alpha lattice design. False rust disease symptoms were recorded on plants using a scale of 1-9. Disease scoring was done for foliage and pods weeks. The data collected on disease and yield parameters were summarized in Microsoft excel sheet and subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using GenStat statistical package 14th edition. Significant differences between treatment means were separated using Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (LSD) test at 5% confidence level. Results from the study showed that False rust disease severity score within the genotypes was significant (P< 0.05) within genotypes but the correlation with yield was low which suggests that there might have been other factors responsible for yield reductions. Therefore, the lines should further be evaluated in terms of resistance to False rust disease can be introduced to the cowpea breeding program. This will ensure both high yields of Cowpea