| Abstract Detail
Ethnobotany Kemigisha, Esther [1], Omujal, Francis [2]. Tetrapleura tetraptera Domestication: Assessing Growth Performance of Tetrapleura tetraptera Provenances through a Randomized Controlled Trial. Tetrapleura tetraptera (family Fabaceae) is an indigenous fruit tree in Africa, highly recognized for its nutritional and medicinal applications. Currently, T.tetraptera is largely collected from the wild unsustainably. Attempts to introduce the tree on-farm face scarcity of information regarding growth outside its natural environment. This article aims to identify accessions with superior growth traits for domestication. We investigate the growth performance of accessions collected from eight ecological zones in Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda. The ecological zones were, Moist deciduous forest, Transition Zone, Wet Evergreen, and dry Semi-Deciduous (in Ghana); Guinea Savanna and Lowland rainforest (in Nigeria) and Lowland tropical forest and medium altitude semi-deciduous forest (in Uganda). Seedlings from 36 T.tetraptera accessions were raised in the tree nursery for 14 weeks and out of the 36 raised, the 33 accessions which germinated with enough seedlings were planted out at the National Forestry Resources Research Institute (NAFORRI) in Uganda, in a randomized complete block design, with three replicates. In the tree nursery, growth performance was measured as germination percentage, height growth, pest, and disease incidences. After planting out, growth performance was measured as survival count, height growth, root collar diameter, diameter at 10 cm height, and crown diameter. We find that in the tree nursery, the highest growth performance in terms of germination percent (77%) and seedling height (15.2 cm) were both in the medium-altitude semi-deciduous forest zone in Ghana, although this zone also had the highest disease incidence (6.7 %). Pest incidence was highest in Lowland tropical forest in Uganda (33%), but the rest of the ecological zones are pest-free with zero incidences. After planting out, survival count done after two weeks ranged from 95% in Wet Evergreen to 100% in Guinea Savanna and was still high (above 80%) after six months. After the first year of planting, the highest crown diameter was 40 cm in the Lowland tropical forest in Uganda and 62.4 cm in year two in Transition Zone in Ghana. The highest height growth (52.1 cm after one year one, and 82.1 cm after year two) was in Transition Zone and Moist deciduous forest zones, both from Ghana. Similarly, the highest root collar diameter (1.0 cm after year one and 2.1 cm after year two) was in Ghana (wet evergreen zone), while the highest stem diameter (measured at 10 cm stem heigh) also in Ghana ─ both in year one (0.7 cm in the dry Semi-Deciduous zone) and year two (1.0 cm in Moist deciduous forest and the dry Semi-Deciduous zone). The results suggest that accessions from Gahan have superior growth traits for domestication.
1 - Makerere University, School of Forestry, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Department of Environmental management, Kampala, +256, Uganda
2 - ministry of health
Keywords:
Tetrapleura tetraptera
Growth Performance
AccessionsÂ
Ecological Zone.
Presentation Type: Poster
Number: PET002
Abstract ID:57
Candidate for Awards:None |
