Development of early maturing, high yielding, long duration of harvesting, and Choanephora tolerant Amaranthus in Nigeria

Production of Amaranthus is affected by wet rot of leaves and stems caused by the fungal organism Choanephora cucurbitarum which can cover completely the entire plant thereby causes significant yield losses (70%). The objective of this work is to develop and release early mature, high yielding improved cultivars tolerant to the fungi disease Choanephora blight. One hundred Amaranthus germplasm was collected and screened in order to identify desired genotypes with high yielding and Choanephora tolerant traits. Twenty accessions of Amaranthus seedlings were planted in the National Horticultural Research Experimental field infected with Choanephora spores. The spacing between rows was 90 cm and within rows was 30 cm. Data were taken on growth traits: 50% days to flowering, included average number of inflorescence with branches, maturity fruit length and weight. The F₁ plant derived from the crosses from divergent parents was self-pollinated to produce F₂ plants. The selected populations were advanced to derive F₆ Recombinant inbred lines (RILs). Purelines of F₆ was evaluated and confirmed in the controlled screen house and on the field. The improved cultivar 'NHAMOLA5' was tested across the country. The field trials were carried out with five farmers per location. The improved cultivar 'NHAMOLA5' outperformed the farmer local (check). The seed weight for the improved cultivar was 2.5 t ha^‑1 while the farmer's local check gave 0.9 t ha^‑1. The on-farm trial confirmed the superiority of the crop and the acceptance by the farmers.