Pre-Breeding Prospects of Lablab (Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet) Accessions in Tanzania: Morphological Characterization and Genetic Diversity Analysis

Under-exploited crops such as Lablab purpureus are regarded a pathway towards alleviating the food and nutritional security in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed at evaluating the morphoagronomic diversity present in 277 lablab accessions based on 38 morpho-agronomic traits. The experiment was laid out in an Augmented design across two main cropping seasons in Tanzania. Qualitative data was analysed using pivot tables. The Generalized Linear Model (PROC GLM), Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were used to analyse variation of 14 quantitative traits. The findings revealed the presence of wide variability of the qualitative traits in the studied accessions. Significant differences were observed among accessions, between seasons, the interaction of blocks and season, and the season and accession effects in most of the traits. Most of the traits had high significant differences in relation to contrast among accessions, among checks and between accessions and checks. The first five principal components cumulatively accounted for 61.89% of the total variability among the accessions studied. Furthermore, cluster analysis grouped the accessions into four major clusters. This results suggest the 14 morphoagronomic traits can successfully discriminate and show presence of wide diversity vital for selection and hybridization program of lablab species.