Consumer preferred boiled cassava cooking qualities in white and yellow fleshed advanced breeding populations in Uganda

Cassava root qualities that meet end-user preferences enhance adoption of varieties. In this study, softness and water absorption (WAB) which is a proxy for cooking time, were assessed in white and yellow fleshed breeding lines, to identify superior lines for recycling as progenitors or advancement in the variety development pipeline. Softness of boiled roots was measured with a penetrometer and WAB using a gravimetric assay. Using a weighted selection index, genotypes UG15F233P046, NAROCASS1 (commercial check), UG15F190P001, UG15F079P002 all white fleshed and UG15F177P502 (yellow fleshed) were ranked overall best in terms of combining softness, dry matter, root number and fresh root yield. Genotypes UG15F173P007 (softest) and UG15F007P013 (highest WAB) could be recycled as progenitors for superior cooking qualities. Also, we did not find significant differences (p<0.05) between white and yellow fleshed cassava for softness and water absorption (WAB) across the two locations. Broad sense heritability (H2) was low for both softness (0.27) and WAB (0) possibly due to narrowing of genetic diversity from previous selection cycles. Also, the significant negative correlation between softness and WAB30 (-0.66) may be exploited to simultaneously select for both traits, since softness has higher heritability than WAB. These findings point out the importance of including consumer preferences in selection indices during variety development, as a possible strategy to increase adoption rates of improved varieties. Key words: Cassava, cooking qualities, end-user selection, Uganda