Character Association in Amaro Coffee (<i>Coffea arabica</i> L.) Landrace Using Morphological Traits at Awada, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Fifty-eight Amaro Kele coffee (Coffea arabica L.) accessions and six standard check were evaluated for character association at Awada Agricultural  Research Sub-Center, Southern Ethiopia using morphological traits. This work was done to determine the level of phenotypic and genotypic  association of characters and their direct and indirect relation with coffee yield. The experiment was laid out in an 8x8 simple lattice design with two  replications having eight coffee accessions per each incomplete block. Coffee yield has positive and significant genotypic association with number  of primary branches(rg=0.704), number of bearing primary branch(rg=0.613), number of main stem node (rg=0.619), stem diameter (rg=0.335) and  canopy diameter (rg=0.376), whereas average inter node length of main stem(1.083), number of main stem nodes (0.427), canopy diameter (0.414),  height up to first primary branch (0.300) and number of bearing primary branch (0.294) had maximum direct effect on yield. Correlation analysis  and path analysis confirmed presence of variation among tested accessions. However, additional traits of interest should be studied over year and  locations including physiological, quality and biochemical analysis with the support of advanced molecular techniques.