Morocco, News

Faba bean and barley local varietal diversity in the Taounate Region of Morocco

June 13th, 2012

By Belqadi Loubna; Department of Production, Protection and Vegetable Biotechnology, Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, Morocco

Faba bean is the major grain legume crop in Morocco, covering nearly half of the area annually planted to grain legumes. In the same way, the area covered by barley exceeds the other cereals (common, durum wheat). Faba bean and barley are complementary because the Moroccan farming systems are based on rotation of legumes / cereals in particular faba bean /barley in Taounate region. Both crops are used for human consumption and animal food. Barley grain is most used in the bovines food. For those species, most of cultivars currently used by the farmers in Morocco are local populations that have been traditionally selected by farmers under different environmental conditions. Take the example of faba bean where more than 97 % of the cultivars currently used by the farmers in Morocco are local populations. These populations, adapted to climatic stresses and local pests in the various environmental niches, provide a rich germplasm source that should be preserved and used to control biotic stresses.

A sample of 184 populations belonging to 13 local  varieties,  was assessed for 8 agromophological traits and yield components at M’rissa experimental station in Larache. These varieties are grown in Taounate region. A randomized complete block design with two replications  was used.The traits measured were : plant height, leaflet size, leaflet shape, pods per plant, grain population, grain yield per plant, grain weight and number of grains per pod.

The table below shows the results of the Univariate Analysis

Trait	Source of variation	df	Mean squares	F	Significance
Plant height	variety	12	572,262	8,572	0,000
Leaflet Size	variety	12	1,915	4,524	0,000
Leaflet shape	variety	12	,500	3,370	0,000
Number of pods/ plant	variety	12	374,402	24,765	0,000
Grain yield/plant	variety	12	663,230	3,220	0,000
Grain weight	variety	12	0,962	2,304	0,008
Grains /pod	variety	12	10,424	6,637	0,000

The results of the univariate analysis showed the most discriminating traits and the significant differences between local varieties of faba bean clearly indicating the existence of large genetic variability for most traits.

The hierarchical tree based on the Euclidean distances revealed the groupings of the 13 varieties in 6 principal classes. The varieties that belonged to the first class had the same intermediate size of leaflets. The varieties in the second class had almost the same number of pods per plant which was rather small compared to that of the other varieties which can reach 19 pods per plant. Those in the third class had the same plant height and reacted in the same way vis-a-vis the botrytis by expressing a certain sensitivity to this disease. The varieties in class five had the smallest weight of a grain. The above results indicate a significant difference in the inter populations for those criteria hence local populations of Faba bean and barley contain a large variability for the traits studied.