PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF YIELD AND YIELD PARAMETERS IN SOME COWPEA CULTIVARS FOR ADAPTABILITY TO LAFIA CLIMATIC CONDITION IN NIGERIA
Hauwa Ahmad Kana
Department of Basic Science
College of Agriculture Lafia, Nasarawa State
Email: hauwamakongiji@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Eight cultivars of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) were collected from IITA (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture), four cultivars from University of Agriculture Markudi and 2 varieties were obtained from Nasarawa State Agricultural Development Programme (NADP) which one of it served as the control. The cowpeas were characterized and evaluated for yield and yield parameters at the College of Agriculture Research farm. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications was used. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the cultivars in Lafia climatic condition and to select among the cultivars, most suitable one and to make entries on its yield parameters. The result showed that the cultivars were significantly different from each other at p<0.05 and also from the control variety for mean number of pods per plant, (MPP), mean number of seeds per pods (MSPH), mean number of seeds per plant at harvest (MSPHo) and mean pod length (MPLH). There was no significant difference between the cultivars and the control variety for mean number of days to flowering (MDF) and mean number of days to maturity. Cultivar IT06K-135, IT06K-281-1, IT07K-299-4 and IT06K-270had a higher seed 100 g weight than the commonly cultivated variety IITA 288and IITA 277.