CHARACTER ASSOCIATION, COMPONENTS OF BEAN YIELD AND COMPOSITIONAL DESCRIPTION OF SOME EARLY-BEARING CACAO (THEOBROMA CACAO L.) HYBRIDS IN NIGERIA

Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) is one of the most important commodity crops of export in the world, and is crucial to the economies of West African countries including Cote d Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria. The tree produces the cocoa beans, the main ingredient used to manufacture chocolate and other confectionery products. The adoption of improved hybrids with good bean yield and nutritional quality in Nigeria is low. Beans from nine new early-bearing cacao hybrids were evaluated to determine their yield and nutritional status. Analysis of variance revealed very highly significant (p<0.05) variation among the genotypes for all their descriptive traits as measured, confirming that the hybrids were different from one another. Simple character correlation coefficients between pairs of traits describing their yield, as indicated by pod index, showed significant relationships among the traits. Dry bean weight, number of beans per fruit, number of bean rows, Beans weight after fermentation, weight of one bean and the time to fruit harvest contributed significantly to pod index. These entire variables simultaneously accounted for 97.87% of variation in pod index values.The mean performance of the hybrids showed that they significantly possessed important components of nutrition in varied proportions. The study concluded that the traits under study are important components of yield in cacao, and are desirable for further investigation in future breeding programmes aimed at improving yield in the cacao crop.