Abstract
BACKGROUND: Gari (especially in Nigeria) is an important West African food product made from cassava. It is an affordable, precooked, dry, easy to prepare and store food product. Eba is a stiff dough produced by reconstituting gari in hot water. Gari and eba quality is an important driver of varietal acceptance by farmers, processors, and consumers. RESULTS : This study characterized the genetic variability, heritability, and correlations among quality-related traits of fresh roots, gari, and eba. Thirty-three diverse genotypes, including landraces and released and advanced breeding genotypes, were used in this study. In total, 40 traits categorized into fresh root quality, colour, functional, and texture properties trait groups were assessed. We observed broad phenotypic variability among the genotypes used in this study. Dry matter content had a positive (P < 0.05) correlation with gari%, bulk density and a negative correlation with eba hardness and gumminess. Broad-sense heritability across all environments varied considerably among the different trait groups: 62% to 79% for fresh root quality, 0% to 96% for colour, 0% to 79% for functional and 0% to 57% for texture properties. CONCLUSIONS: The stable broad-sense heritability found for gari%, gari and eba colour, bulk density, swelling index, and hardness measured using instrumental texture profile analysis coupled with sufficient variability in the population indicate good potential for genetic improvement of these traits through recurrent selection. Also, it is possible to genetically improve gari%, bulk density, and swelling power by simultaneously improving the dry matter content of fresh roots.