Abstract

Potato production in Cameroon is low and far from satisfying the demand. To enhance crop productivity, genetic improvement uses a phenotype-based selection strategy to choose parents based on their performance. Seventeen potato descriptors and six quantitative traits were used to determine the phenotypic variability and estimate genetic divergence among 138 potato accessions collected from farmers’ fields in Cameroon. Accessions were grown during the rainy season under Dschang ecological conditions from September to November 2016 and March to May 2017. The relative index of phenotypic diversity estimated on the 17 qualitative traits using the relative diversity index of Shannon and Weaver was high (0.71) indicating high phenotypic diversity of the tested collection. Cluster analysis performed on dissimilarity estimates using the Euclidian distance revealed two main clusters; one showed the highest total tuber yield, whereas the other showed the highest dry matter content and included the indigenous genotypes. All the quantitative traits had high heritability. High genetic coefficients of variation and high heritability together with high genetic advance were observed for total tuber yield, total tuber number, plant height, and mean stem number. These traits can be used for breeding.

Key words: Solanum tuberosum, morphological traits, cluster analysis, heritability, genetic advance.