Genetic parameters and path analysis for root yield of cassava under drought and early harvest

Abstract The objectives of this study were to estimate genetic parameters and identify traits that contribute to early yield in Manihot esculenta Crantz. Ten traits were evaluated in two experiments, one with 138 genotypes and the other with 133, using a completely randomized block design with four replications. All genotype effects were significant. The accuracy was high for the traits, except leaf retention (0.57), and reliability ranged from 0.33 to 0.75. Root weight (RW) and number of roots (NR) showed the highest selection effectiveness (CV r ), although the estimate was less than 1. Moreover, RW and NR obtained high genetic correlation (0.70). Path analysis showed that only number of roots had a significant direct effect on root weight (0.49), and no indirect effect was found. Therefore, accessions exhibited sufficient genetic variability, and indirect selection based on early evaluation of number of roots can be applied in cassava breeding for fresh root yield, increasing gain over time.