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Farmers’ Knowledge on Macadamia Genetic Diversity in Kenya as a Means for in situ Conservation

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Last updated: 22 Jan 2023

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Abstract

Macadamia, a member of the family Proteaceae, is widely grown in Kenya as an alternative cash crop to tea and coffee, but varieties adapted to different agro-ecological zones are still lacking. Macadamia breeders require high genetic diversity to select and recombine favorable traits through cross-breeding and hence the need for in situ conservation of existing germplasm. A survey was done to assess the variability that exists in farmers' field and how well they can differentiate between different macadamia types and to locate valuable germplasm for further evaluation and conservation. A total of 185 farmers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire and descriptive statistics was done using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The survey results indicated that only 10.3% of the respondents could differentiate Macadamia types, by species, among them only 2.8% could do so by varieties, indicating a limited knowledge on Macadamia morphology. Nut characteristics (97.3%) followed by leaf characteristics (88.0%) and yield (88.0%) were the morphological markers mostly used by farmers. Detailed morphological and molecular characterization of some selected promising accessions is ongoing. Hence, there is a need for farmers' training on morphological markers that could be used to select valuable Macadamia germplasm for conservation in situ.

Keywords

Agro-ecological zones, Farmers’ knowledge, Genetic diversity, germplasm, in situ conservation, Macadamia, Morphological markers, Proteaceae, Kenya

Authors

First Name

Lucy

Last Name

Gitonga

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, National Horticultural Resaerch Center, P.O Box 220, Thika Department of Horticulture, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O Box 00200-62000

Email

lucygitonga2000@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Esther

Last Name

Kahangi

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Horticulture, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O Box 00200-62000

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Anne

Last Name

Muigai

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Botany, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O Box 00200-62000

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Kamau

Last Name

Ngamau

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Horticulture, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O Box 00200-62000

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Simon

Last Name

Gichuki

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Biotechnology Center, P.O Box 00200-57811, Nairobi

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Evans

Last Name

Mutuma

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, National Horticultural Resaerch Center, P.O Box 220, Thika

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Wilson

Last Name

Cheluget

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, National Horticultural Resaerch Center, P.O Box 220, Thika

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Brown

Last Name

Watiki

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, National Horticultural Resaerch Center, P.O Box 220, Thika

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

3

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

3859

Issue Date

2008-01-01

Receive Date

2018-11-07

Publish Date

2008-01-01

Page Start

55

Page End

60

Print ISSN

1687-5052

Online ISSN

2090-2786

Article File

CAT_Volume 3_Issue 1_Pages 55-60.pdf

PDF . 140.0kB

Link

https://cat.journals.ekb.eg/article_18514.html

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https://cat.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=18514

Order

6

Type

Original Article

Type Code

644

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Catrina: The International Journal of Environmental Sciences

Publication Link

https://cat.journals.ekb.eg/

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023