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Four hundred tubers of four genotypes, two brown and two black tiger nuts were subjected to Ethyl Methanesulfonate (EMS) and Colchicine treatments at concentrations of 0 %, 0.1 %, 0.25 %, 0.5 % and 1.0 % for 24 h. Each genotype had twenty tubers treated with each of the five different concentrations and were planted using Complete Randomized Design (CRD) in a greenhouse. Quantitative data was collected and LD 50 and RD 50 were analysed using Excell 2016 and Genstat 11.2. A general decreasing trend in percentage germination and plant height was observed with increasing concentrations of mutagens applied. An EMS treatment had LD 50 and RD 50 values of 0.97 % and 1.49 % for black and 0.63 % and 1.63 % for brown genotypes. Similarly, the percentage colchicine treatment had LD 50 and RD 50 values of 1.65 % and 19.51 % concentrations for black and 0.91 % and 1.71 % concentrations for brown genotypes., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

The cowpea variety Videza , which was used as the control, matures early (70 days after planting), although it produces low yields. Gamma irradiation mutagenesis was used to induce Videza into extra-early maturing and higher yielding mutant genotypes. A single seed descend population was developed for radio-sensitivity test, and a Lethal Dose 50 (LD 50 ) of 240.5 Gy was determined, and applied from a cobalt-60 ( 60 Co) source, to acutely mass irradiate 1800 Videza seeds, at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission. The irradiated seeds (M1) were planted to produce M2 seeds bearing plants and subsequently advanced to M3 plants for selection of nine induced plants based on extra earliness and significantly higher seed yields than the parental control. It took 48 days after planting (DAP) for the genotype coded P1N02#1 to reach 50 % maturity followed by 52 DAP for genotypes with codes P4N03#3; P3N01#5; P5N05#6, P4N14#7, P5N07#8, P5N05#10 and 54 DAP for genotype P4N14#11. P1N06#9 had the highest yield (97.38 g/plant), followed by P5N05#10 (95.97 g/plant), P1N08#13 (81.24 g/plant), P2N09#12 (73.94 g/plant), P6N10#19 (70.83 g/plant), P1N06#20 (65.36 kg/plant), P5N07#14 (61.23 g/plant), P4N14# (58.05 g/plant) and P1N08#17 (56.23 g/plant). M3 seeds were advanced to M4 plants for a Preliminary Yield Trial which revealed that induced plants P5N05#10 (1235 kg/ha), P2N09#12 (1206 kg/ha), P5N07#14 (1185 kg/ha), P1N06#20 (1171 kg/ha), P1N06#9 (1051 kg/ha), P1N08#13 (1041 kg/ha), and P6N10#19 (999 kg/ha) outperformed the control (517 kg/ha) and two other commercial varieties. Overall, the two highest performing candidates for further evaluation for varietal release were P5N05#10 and P2N09#12., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

Soybean production is concentrated in the Guinea Savannah agro-ecological zone of Ghana. However, its cultivation is plagued with a number of constraints leading to low yields. A participatory approach was, therefore, used to identify farmers' and processors' preferred soybean traits and production constraints, climate change effects and strategies employed for mitigating these effects in three districts within the soybean growing areas in Northern Ghana. The study revealed that 72.0 % and 68.8 % of farmers in the Tolon and Savelugu districts, respectively, used improved soybean seeds for planting their fields. Over 13.0 % of farmers indicated late maturity as the most important constraint, followed by manual threshing difficulty and terminal drought which results in low grain yield and poor quality. About 70.0 % of farmers opined that climate change effects are causing obvious shifts in the rainfall pattern. Majority of the farmers (94.6 %) indicated that the onset of peak rainfall has changed in the past decade. Almost 44.0% of farmers also indicated that severe drought has affected pods filling in the past. A third (33.3%) of farmers indicated that drought usually sets in at pod initiation. The farmers enumerated some of the effects of early cessation of the rainfall in soybean production as drying up of immature and green seed (28.3%), low grain yield (27.1%) and poor seed quality (22.1%). Some of the mitigation strategies employed by the farmers include early planting (40.0%) and mulching (25.0%) to retain soil moisture for enhanced growth of crops. The order of farmers' preferences new soybean varieties were shattering resistance (16.0%), high grain yield (14.0%), large seeds size (13.1%), and early maturity (11.8%), whereas processors preferred varieties with large seed size (30.6%), high protein content (28.7%), pest resistance (15.9%) and short cooking duration (12.7%). Both the farmers and processors indicated their willingness to pay more for seeds with the desired traits. These findings will aid soybean breeders in developing new varieties that possess desired traits preferred by both farmers and processors for increased soybean cultivation and utilization., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

The development of cassava genotypes with root system traits that increase soil resource acquisition could increase yields on infertile soils but there are relatively few work that has quantified cassava root system architecture (RSA). We used an easily adaptable and inexpensive protocol to: (i) measure genotypic variation for RSA and shoot traits of a range of cassava genotypes; and (ii) identify candidate variables that contribute the largest share of variance. Cassava genotypes were grown in soil-filled pots, maintained at 70% field capacity. Shoot and RSA traits were measured on plants grown up to 30, 45 and 60 days. Multivariate analysis was used to determine major traits contributing to variation. The study showed that cassava roots are adventitious in origin consisting of a main root axis and orders of lateral roots, and therefore the historically used term "fibrous roots" are redundant currently not contributing to clarity. There were significant differences ( P < 0.05) for traits evaluated. The highest relative root growth rate occurred over the first 30 days and ranged from 0.39 to 0.48 cm day -1 . Root fresh weight was significantly correlated with other traits, including root length ( r = 0.79), leaf area ( r = 0.72), number of lower nodal roots ( r = 0.60), indicating that direct selection based on these traits might be sufficient to improve root biomass. Up to the first six principal components explained over 80% of the total variation among the genotypes for the traits measured at 30, 45 and 60 days. Leaf area, root diameter and branching density-related traits were the most important traits contributing to variation. Selection of cassava genotypes based on shoot and root biomass, root diameter and branching density at juvenile growth stage could be successful predictors of nutrient and water-use efficiency in the field. Further studies are required to relate studied juvenile cassava root traits with the performance of field-grown-mature plant with regard to drought, nutrient-use efficiency and yield.