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Background: The African eggplant [Solanum aethiopicum (L.)] is an important orphan traditional vegetable cultivated in tropical regions for its edible fruits. In Benin republic, S. aethiopicum (L.) is mainly produced by rural farmers for food and for its uses in traditional medicine. Assessing the varietal diversity, the endogenous knowledge, the production constraints and the farmers’ preference criteria are of great importance for promotion and conservation purposes. Methods: Using rural appraisal tools and methods, an ethnobotanical study was conducted within 680 households across 92 villages. A total of 60 local accessions were identified, documented and collected in the surveyed sites. Results: We documented fifteen (15) farmers’ criteria for agronomic (57.88% of responses), and culinary (28.51%) preference; and for economic (13.61%) aspects. Several constraints related to eggplant production in Benin were recorded among which, low market demand (27% of responses), lack of high-yielding cultivars (11.08% of responses), low fruit storability (10.67%), low productivity (9.84%), soil poverty (8.43%), susceptibility to high soil moisture (8.02 %), pests (9.56%) and diseases (8.45%), and drought (6.38%) appeared to be the most important stress factors. In addition to synthetic pesticides, the eggplant farmers use botanical plant extracts such as extracts from Azadirachta indica (Meliaceae) and Hyptis suaveolens (Lamiaceae). Conclusion and implications: Benin eggplant production still remains traditional and limited to a few rural farmers. Finally, the current collected germplasm was proposed for further evaluation using morphological and molecular markers in order to provide breeders with traits of interest for developing better eggplant varieties that are suitable for local environmental conditions and production systems.

Background The availability of good quality seeds is synonymous with improved farming, especially cash crops such as cotton. However, serious problems with seed germination have been reported recently by cotton farmers in Benin Republic. The assumptions formulated at the base with regard to this situation remain to be verified technically. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the influence of storage conditions on the quality of cotton seeds in Northern Benin. Temperature and relative humidity were assessed followed by a seed sampling sequence in seven (07) cotton seeds stores according to three main periods, ranging from the establishment in conservation to the following seasonal production. Germination tests were then carried out on each sample followed by data analysis using R and Minitab17 software.Results There is a large variation in the germination rate of cotton seed during their storage period. The probabilities values ​​(Pvalue1 = 0.023, Pvalue2 = 0.001 and Pvalue3 = 0.038) respectively associated with the three samples and the various coefficient of variation (CV) between stores (CV1 = 2.42%, CV2 = 7.1% and CV3 = 8.88%) explain a significant difference not only between the stores but also from one sample to another with regard to sampling periods. There is a strong progressive decrease in seed germination (Germination rate 1 > Germination rate2 > Germination rate3), which is responsible for the failure observed by the growers during sowing. Thus, seeds lose an average of 15% of their initial germination capacity already at one month of storage. This is generally negative due to all the storage conditions and system in the stores.Conclusions The excessive increase in temperature and the considerable decrease in relative humidity in stores are the main factors of significant loss of germination capacity of cotton seeds. In view of this situation, it is desirable that technical measures be taken in this direction in order to better preserve the quality of the seeds made available to producers for an optimization of the cotton sector in Benin.

The African eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum L.) is an important traditional vegetable cultivated in tropical regions for its edible fruits. In the Benin Republic, S. aethiopicum is mainly cultivated by rural farmers for food and for its use in traditional medicine. Assessing varietal diversity, endogenous knowledge, production constraints and farmers' preference criteria are of great importance for promotion and conservation purposes. Using rural appraisal tools and methods, an ethnobotanical study was conducted in 680 households across 92 villages. A total of 60 local cultivars were collected and documented in the surveyed sites. We documented 15 farmers’ criteria for agronomic (57.88% of responses), culinary (28.51%) preference, and for economic (13.61%) aspects. Several constraints related to eggplant production in Benin were also recorded. The low market demand (27% of responses), lack of high-yielding cultivars (11.08% of responses), low fruit storability (10.67%), low productivity (9.84%), soil poverty (8.43%), susceptibility to high soil moisture (8.02%), pests (9.56%), diseases (8.45%), and drought (6.38%) appeared to be the most important constraints of the eggplant production system in Benin. In addition to synthetic pesticides, the eggplant farmers use botanical plant extracts such as extracts from Azadirachta indica (Meliaceae) and Hyptis suaveolens (Lamiaceae). It appears that eggplant production is still traditional and is of limited use in Benin. Finally, the currently collected germplasm was proposed for further evaluation using morphological and molecular markers to provide breeders with traits of interest for developing better eggplant varieties and hybrids that are suitable for local environmental conditions and production systems.