Grain & Oil Yield Variability in Castor Bean Accessions Across Savannah Zones | InformativeBD

T. L. Tchuenteu, C. Megueni, and Y. N. Njintang, from the institute of Cameroon. wrote a Research article about, Grain & Oil Yield Variability in Castor Bean Accessions Across Savannah Zones. Entitled, A study of the variability for grain and oil yield and yield related traits of castor beans accessions in two savannah agro-ecological zones of Cameroon. This research paper published by the International Journal of Biosciences | IJB.  an open access scholarly research journal Biosciences. under the affiliation of the International Network For Natural Sciences| INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary research journal publisher.

Abstract

Field trials were carried out to investigate the seeds/oil yielding ability and yield related traits of three accessions of castor beans (Motso 1, Motso 2 and Ndoutourou) cultivated in the environmental conditions of the two agro-ecological zones of Northern Cameroon (Sudano-guinea zone and Sudano-sahelian zone). Planting was done following a randomized block design with 3 replications and three treatments (Castor bean accessions) in each of these study zones. The growing parameters, the seeds yield and oil yield were evaluated. Growing parameters and seeds and oil yields were significantly different (p<0.05) between castor bean accessions and the two study zones. Castor bean accessions adapted better in the Sudano-Guinea zone than the Sudano-sahelian zone. Irrespective of the growing zone, Ndoutourou accession possessed the highest seeds and oil yield, 4.09±0.004 and 4.28±0.02 t ha-1 respectively in Sudano-Guinea zone and Sudano-Sahelian zone) is more than those of Motso 1 and Motso 2 accessions. Motso 1 accession has the smallest seeds yield. It comes out from these results that Ndoutourou accession can be recommended to farmers of Northern Cameroon to be integrated into their agricultural systems.

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Introduction

Castor bean (Ricinus comminus L.) is an oleaginous (40-60% oil) cultivated for its seeds which yield viscous, pale and non-volatile yellow oil (Pina et al., 2005). The oil has many industrial applications notably it is used in the manufacture of paints, dyes, inks, waxes, varnishes, lubricants and brake fluids (Devendra and Raghavan, 1978; Ramos et al., 1984; Ogunniyi, 2006). The castor oil obtained by cold pressing of seeds is also used in household for soap production and as purgatives and laxatives (Weiss, 2000). Castor plant is cultivated industrially in many countries like India, China, Brazil, Madagascar (Pina et al., 2005). However India alone exports 0.73 Mt of castor seeds per year accounting to 60% of the total world production and therefore largely dominates the market. Despite the more and more increasing production, the demand for castor beans in the world market steadily increases (Sujatha et al., 2008), then given opportunity to improve and increase castor beans production. In this respect Reddy and Matcha (2010) suggested that castor bean crop can become a cash crop in modern agriculture. Studies have been initiated in this direction to introduce and study the adaptability of castor bean in different soil of several countries including USA (Baldwin and Cossar, 2009) and in Europe (Laureti and Marras, 1995; Koutroubas et al., 1999). Such study seems to be not undertaken under savannah climate, at the best of our knowledge. Yet, Castor bean (Ricinus communis L.), a C3 plant has been dedicated to be native of tropical Africa (Baldwin and Cossar, 2009).

In the perspective to explore the feasibility of castor oil as an alternative cash crop in Cameroon, questions on the growing performance of available accessions in the savannah regions needs to assess. Castor plant has been demonstrated to growth well in little shade environments where there is soil rich in organic manure, well drained and possessing neutral pH (Weiss, 2000). Castor bean yield also depend on the latitude and management practices (Oplinger et al., 1990). The seed oil content depends on the genotype, but it is also affected by the environmental conditions, cultural practices and time of harvesting.

Koutroubas et al. (1999) investigated the adaptation and yield of 19 castor bean plants genotypes and observed that the plant height depend mainly on the genotype, the site and the year of the experimentation. High temperatures, above 35°C, and water stress during the flowering and oil formation can reduce the seed oil content (Weiss, 1983). One of the most important factors affecting the seeds oil content is the variety, and in this respect Ramos et al. (1984) surveyed 36 castor bean varieties in Brazil for oil and fatty acid composition and revealed a large variability of seed oil percentage ranging from 39.6% to 59.5%.

Castor bean cultivation is not popularized in subSaharan Africa. Recent investigation on castor beans available in Cameroon revealed the presence of some accessions in the sudano-guinea and sudano-sahelian savannah zones where they are used as fence (Tchobsala, 2008) and /or soil fertilisation (Azim, 2005). Tchobsala (2008) listed 16 accessions of castor bean in North Cameroon. Djonbada (2010) investigate the agronomics characteristics of these castor bean accessions in field in North Cameroon and 3 of them named Motso 1, Motso 2 and Ndoutourou were identified as the best seeds yielding accessions. The savannah area seems to be favorable to castor production; however no information exists on their performance under this climate since the environmental conditions are determinant factors conditioning their growth and seed yield. The agronomies characteristics and oil content of castor bean from other countries such as Brazil, Nigeria, India and China had been studied. The agronomic characteristics of these local castor bean accessions cultivated in field in Adamawa and Maroua regions (Cameroon), the seeds oil content from these areas, as well as the influence of these localities on these parameters are not known. The research question on this study concerned then the evaluation of the performance of 3 local accessions of castor beans in 2 agro-ecological savannah zones of Cameroon. In other words what are the height, the number of leaves, the survival rate and seedling emergence, number of bunches per plant and number of fruits per bunch and seed yield of the accessions since seeds and oil yields depend on these parameters (Koutroubas et al., 1999). The purpose of this work was to study the yielding ability, the yield related traits and the oil yield of three castor bean accessions (Motso 1, Motso 2 and Ndoutourou) cultivated in field in two agro ecological savannah zones, the SudanoGuinea zone and the Sudano-Sahelian zone. The importance and usefulness of this work follows from the fact that the castor bean accession that adapts best in two agro-ecological zones of Northern Cameroon and has a better oil yield will be popularized.

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Article source : A study of the variability for grain and oil yield and yield related traits of castor beans accessions in two savannah agro-ecological zones of Cameroon