Agro-morphological evaluation of a mung beans (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) collection under Senegal growing conditions.

In Senegal, achieving food and nutritional security in a context of high climatic variability, declining soil fertility and a rapidly growing population remains a major challenge for the national authorities. In this context, the integration of legumes such as mung beans could provide an alternative solution to these challenges. It is a short-cycle legume, resilient to climatic conditions, contributes to the restoration of soil fertility and is very rich in protein. The aim of this study was to characterize a panel of 150 mung bean accessions. The trial was established on the agricultural farm of the University Gaston Berger of Saint Louis, located in the agro-ecological zone of the Senegal River, using an alpha lattice design with three replications. The analysis of variance results revealed significant phenotypic variability between these accessions for all the quantitative parameters collected. A significant and negative correlation was noted between plant phenology and yield of seeds and pods. Principal component analysis grouped these accessions into 03 groups. Seed and pod yield, growing cycle and plant height were the most discriminating parameters. This huge phenotypic variability observed indicates that these genotypes could serve as useful genetic resources in mung bean breeding programs.