Evaluation of Agromorphological Characters of Cassava Cultivars (<i>Manihot</i><i> </i><i>esculenta</i> Crantz) from Eight Agroecological Conditions in Côte d’Ivoire

The objective of this study was to analyze the agromorphological variabity within cassava cultivars from eight agroecological area conditions or Agro-poles in Côte d’Ivoire. One hundred and forty six (146) cassava cultivars were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with 10 discriminants quantitatives traits. Data were collected at six and twelve months after planting. High phenotypic variability was shown within the collection for all the traits evaluated. The principal component analysis (PCA) applied to the 146 accessions confirmed this variability of 71.01% revealed by the first two principal components (PCs). The ascending hierarchical clustering (AHC) revealed three groups based on by the height to first branching, the number of leaf lobes, the length of leaf lobe, the petiole length, the number of roots per plant, the fresh root weight and the tuber yield per plant. These three groups were constituted of cassava cultivras independently of the agroecological area from which they were collected. This study demonstrated that there is a considerable genetic variability among ivorian cassava cultivars which should improve food security and breeding potential.