Browsing by Author "Nakanwagi, Mildred Julian"

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    Dentification of Growth Stage-Specific Watering Thresholds for Drought Screening in Solanum aethiopicum Shum
    (Natureresearch, 2020) Nakanwagi, Mildred Julian; Sseremba, Godfrey; Kabod Nahamya , Pamela; Masanza, Michael; Balyejusa Kizito, Elizabeth
    Effective phenotyping for drought resistance is a pre-requisite for identification of modest crop varieties for farmers. For neglected and underutilized crops such as Solanum aethiopicum Shum group, no drought screening protocol based on rigorous iterations has been documented. A split-plot nested treatment structure was arranged in an experiment to identify growth stage-specific watering thresholds for this crop. Three plant growth stages (main plot; seedling, vegetative and flowering), watering regime at plant growth stage (2 regimes; well-watered and drought stressed) and day since last watering at plant growth stage were evaluated for soil moisture content (SMC), leaf wilting score (LWS), number of green leaves per plant (LPP) and leaf blade width (LBW). Highly significant differences (p < 0.001) were found at the different plant growth stages, watering regime (WR) within plant growth stage, and day within WR and plant growth stage. Under drought stress treatment, SMC declined exponentially at each stage. The earliest leaf wilting, reduction in LPP and LBW were generally observed at flowering followed by vegetative and slowest at the seedling stage. For future effective drought phenotyping studies in S. aethiopicum Shum and related crops, we recommend setting minimum drought stress treatments below 18% SMC at which the LWS is ≥2 at the vegetative.
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    Farmer Preferred Traits and Genotype Choices in Solanum aethiopicum L., Shum Group
    (Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2021) Kizito, Elizabeth B; Bishop, Gerard; Nakanwagi, Mildred Julian; Buteme, Ruth; Waholi, Kenneth; Kyebalyenda, Tadeo; Rwothtimutung, Moses; Nahamya, Pamela Kabod; Sseremba, Godfrey; Nakyewa, Brenda
    Background: Solanum aethiopicum L. is a nutrient dense African indigenous vegetable. However, advancement of its improved varieties that can increase productivity, household income, and food security has not been prioritized. Further still, studies on some of the crops that have been worked have indicated that it is not a guarantee that the improved varieties will be accepted by the end users and therefore there is need to identify and profile what genotypes are of interest to farmers and their preferred traits through inclusive participatory evaluations. Methodology: Farmer participatory evaluations were conducted to profile farmers’ traits of interest and preferred genotypes. A total of 24 genotypes were established in three replications in 6 farms in 3 districts; Wakiso, Mukono, and Luwero as these are the major producing districts of the vegetable in Uganda. A total of 177 sex-disaggregated farmers were engaged in scoring the genotypes for pest, disease and drought tolerance, general appeal, leaf yield, leaf texture, and seed yield for best 10 genotypes under each variable. Results: Non-significant differences in trait (p > 0.05) and genotype preferences (p > 0.05) were obtained between men and women. The most desired farmer traits were seed and leaf yield, followed by pest and disease resistance. The overall preferred genotype in terms of disease and pest resistance, leaf yield, leaf texture, and seed yield were E12 followed by E11. Conclusion: Gender does not seem to influence farmer choices for the S. aethiopicum, Shum group, indicating an opportunity for single variety prototype advancement by breeders and dissemination by seed companies.
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    Identification of Growth Stage Specific Watering Thresholds for Drought Screening in Solanum aethiopicum Shum
    (Nature Research, 2020-01-21) Nakanwagi, Mildred Julian; Sseremba, Godfrey; Nahamya, Pamela Kabod; Masanza, Michael; Kizito, Elizabeth Balyejusa
    Effective phenotyping for drought resistance is a pre-requisite for identification of modest crop varieties for farmers. For neglected and underutilized crops such as Solanum aethiopicum Shum group, no drought screening protocol based on rigorous iterations has been documented. A split-plot nested treatment structure was arranged in an experiment to identify growth stage-specific watering thresholds for this crop. Three plant growth stages (main plot; seedling, vegetative and flowering), watering regime at plant growth stage (2 regimes; well-watered and drought stressed) and day since last watering at plant growth stage were evaluated for soil moisture content (SMC), leaf wilting score (LWS), number of green leaves per plant (LPP) and leaf blade width (LBW). Highly significant differences (p < 0.001) were found at the different plant growth stages, watering regime (WR) within plant growth stage, and day within WR and plant growth stage. Under drought stress treatment, SMC declined exponentially at each stage. The earliest leaf wilting, reduction in LPP and LBW were generally observed at flowering followed by vegetative and slowest at the seedling stage. For future effective drought phenotyping studies in S. aethiopicum Shum and related crops, we recommend setting minimum drought stress treatments below 18% SMC at which the LWS is ≥2 at the vegetative
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    Performance of Solanum aethiopicum Shum group accessions under repetitive drought stress.
    (2018-01) Nakanwagi, Mildred Julian; Sseremba, Godfrey; Masanza, Michael; Kizito, Elizabeth B.
    Drought is a serious climatic hazard to crop production, more especially when it occurs repeatedly. This created a need to identify repetitive drought tolerant varieties that recover following exposure to drought. Twenty accessions of Solanum aethiopicum Shum group were evaluated for their response to repeated drought exposure in a screen house at Uganda Christian University stressed and well-watered conditions in a split-plot arrangement. Data was collected on growth and yield parameters namely leaf area, plant canopy width, plant height, plant branching, fresh leaf weight, fresh shoot biomass, and harvest index. Exposure of plants to repetitive drought stress led to significant decrease in all evaluated growth parameters at p<0.001 except for plant branching. Similarly, yield parameters exhibited a highly significant difference among accessions and between water levels at p<0.001. Principal component analysis of growth rate traits showed that leaf area contributed to the highest variation for recovery from repetitive drought stress among accessions. The accessions that recovered best from drought stress include SAS108/2015, SAS163/P/2015, SAS183/G/2015, and SAS168/G/2015. For yield parameters, the accessions SAS137/2015, SAS148/2015, SAS108/P/2015, and SAS160/2015 had the highest dry shoot biomass. These findings indicate prospect for improvement of tolerance to repetitive drought stress in S. aethiopicum Shum group.