Cocoyam Case Study

Title of PhD research proposal: Morphological and Molecular Characterization, Micropropagation and nutritional assessment of cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium (L.) Schott) germplasms from Ethiopia
By:
Eyasu Wada Wachamo
Email: [e-mail]
Phone number (Mobile): 251 912 841 769
Skype name: eyasu.wada1
Applied Genetics PhD student, Department of Microbial, Cellular and Moleulr Biology, Addis Ababa University
1. Introduction
Cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium L. Schott) is herbaceous, perennial, monocotyledonous crop in the Araceae family which is grown in the humid tropics and subtropics and includes close to 110 genera and more than 2,500 species (Brown, 2000). Xanthosoma is a genus with about 40 species, grown as ornamentals and as food
(2009) recent research has provided data to confirm the nutritional superiority of some lesser known crops and their wild varieties over other more extensively utilized crops. The existence of different cocoyam genotypes with distinct botanical characteristics suggests the presence of variation in nutritional composition due to differences in habitat, growth conditions and genetic background. Kay (1987) reported that cocoyam contains 70-77 % moisture, 17-26 % carbohydrate, 1.3-3.7 % protein, 0.2-0.4 % fat, 0.6-1.9 % fiber and 0.6-1.3 % ash. Cocoyam flour is used as composite in a bread making, biscuits, pasta
A semi-structured interview guide will be used to conduct individual interview with 60 informants who grow cocoyam in the study area. In each Woreda 5 model farmers in growing cocoyam will be interviewed, i.e., those farmers who grow cocoyam to larger extent will be interviewed. That means the selection of farmers for interview will be purposeful (purposive sampling technique will be used).
During ethnobotanical data collection farmers will be encouraged to express information through the way they perceived on cocoyam by their own eyes through experience. The farmers will be told to be free to tell all what they know about the crop with no external enforcement. For that, they will be allowed to express thing by their own language. Therefore, interviewer who speaks the local language fluently will be informed about the research approach and the information on the use, preparation and agronomic characteristics of cocoyam landraces of Ethiopia will be recorded. Some voucher specimens will also be collected, as much as possible, to be deposited at the National Herbarium of Addis Ababa University as reference material. The resulting ethnobotanical data will be analyzed by descriptive