Phenotypic Assessment of Oil Palm Diversity through Field-level Screening for Improved Yield Performance on Njala Upland Soil

This study was primarily undertaken to assess the fresh fruit bunch (FFB) yield performance among oil palm genotypes on Njala upland soil. To determine the FFB yield, field research was carried out using four oil palm genotypes in an independent complete randomized design in four replications on 160 experimental sample palms. Three years of data were collected on yield and fruit bunch components, and vegetative traits. In the current study, 23 quantitative variables were used to evaluate the performance of four genotypes of oil palm. Through the analysis of variance, the morphological features of the different variants showed a wide range of variation. The traits were found to be influenced by the environment. Genotype Y26666B had the highest FFB yield at 188.31 (kg/palm/year) followed by genotype Y26515A 171.58 (kg/palm/year). It was further examined that FFB yield gap exists among the genotypes and all of them [Y26515A, Y26456A, Y26666B and Y26520C (13.16, 17.86, 11.90 and 17.86 t/genotype/year)], respectively, proved to have high FFB yield gap. This showed that among the elite genotypes (Y26666B and Y26515A), there is a significant opportunity to increase their FFB yield. Correlation (r) validated that fruit bunch number had more positive impact on FFB yield than average bunch weight. The findings suggested an alternative method for future studies, hence, genotype Y26666B could be selected as parent for future breeding programs.