HIGHLIGHTING PHENOTYPIC VARIATION AND UNDERSTANDING CORRELATIONS BETWEEN TRAITS WITHIN BAMBARA GROUNDNUT COLLECTION FROM BURKINA FASO FOR POTENTIAL CANDIDATES IN BREEDING PROGRAM

For Bambara groundnut breeding improvement, this investigation was undertaken to characterize agromorphological variation and trait relationships within a Bambara groundnut collection from Burkina Faso and identify candidate accession for use in breeding. Twenty-four genotypes from the INERA germplasm repository were evaluated at the Tenkodogo University Centre experimental site during the 2023-2024 rainy season in a randomized complete block design. Fifteen groundnut descriptors were scored, trait correlations and differences between genotypes were assessed. For most of the studied characters (13/15) there were large phenotypic differences. This wealth of genetic diversity could be exploited for use in plant breeding.  Negative correlations were observed between physiologic and agronomic traits, for example between yield and flowering (r = - 0.61), and several agronomic traits. Certain genotypes showed distinctive and interesting growth and agronomic characteristics such as high number of leaves (> 60 leaves), early flowering (< 35 days), high number of pods (> 22 pods), 100-seeds weight (> 45 g) and high grain yield (> 1000 kg ha-1). This diversity shows a possibility for selection of promising genotypes from this collection for dual purpose, for food and feed.