This study evaluated the performance, character correlation, and nutritional composition of 10 papaya genotypes in Edo State, Nigeria. The genotypes showed little variation in fruit size, shape, and color. There were strong positive correlations between stem height, girth, leaf length, petiole length, and fruit yield, except for stem height. Significant variations existed in nutritional composition of the fruit pulp. The low diversity found suggests collecting more germplasm from other areas to widen the study. Variability can also be generated through crossing genotypes to select for improved traits. Selection can effectively improve nutritional traits since significant variations existed among genotypes.

1. Performance, Character Correlation, and
Nutritional Composition of Papaya (Carica
papaya L.) Genotypes in Edo State of Nigeria
T.O. Emede, B.S. Ajayo and I.P.Eduep
Department of Crop Science, University of Benin,
Benin City, Nigeria

2. Introduction & Objectives
Papaya (Carica Papaya L.) belonging to the Caricaceae family (Samson,
1986; Nakasona and Paull, 1998) is a medium sized fruit crop with a potential to produce
fruits throughout the year. It is commonly known for its food and nutritional values
throughout the world (Krishna et al., 2008). Practically, every part of papaya is of
economic value and its use ranges from nutritional to medicinal. Papaya is a tropical fruit
crop widely grown in Nigeria for food, ornamental and traditional health care purposes
(Sofoware, 1997).
However, despite the invaluable nutritional value of papaya, little or no
attention has been paid to document the performance, morphological diversity and
nutritional composition of the fruit pulp in Nigeria. The first step at the start of a breeding
programme is to establish the germplasm or collection of cultivars to provide breeders
with the basic resource. After evaluation, characterization and documentation, the
collection becomes the genetic inventory from which breeders can draw out accessions
that can become ‘baseline’ cultivars for immediate recommendation or to be used as
parents for hybridization and improvement of existing commercial cultivars.
The objectives of this present study were to evaluate the performance,
character correlation and nutritional composition of several papaya genotypes

3. Materials and Methods
The experiment was conducted in 2011, 2012
and 2013 cropping seasons at the Teaching and
Research Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, University
of Benin, Benin City Edo State, Nigeria. Papaya seeds
obtained from whole fruit collected from home gardens
and Uselu market in Benin City metropolis. Papaya
genotypes used include CP001, CP002, CP003, CP004,
CP005, CP006, CP007, CP008, CP011 and CP012.
Seeds were planted in October, 2011 in drills of 4m by
broadcasting and gradually thinned to three plants per
row, spaced at 2m × 2m Experiment was laid out as
RCBD with three replications. Parameters evaluated
include stem, leaf and fruit characters. Nutritional traits of
the fruit pulp were also evaluated
Data was subjected to analysis of variance and
Pearson correlation was done using SAS software
statistical package (SAS, 2002)

4. Results
 The 10 evaluated papaya genotypes displayed relatively
little or no variation in fruit size, shape of the fruits, and
colour at maturity
 The analysis of variance also showed that variations do not
exist in all the agronomic characters studied among
papaya genotypes
 There was strong and positive correlation between
characters related to stem height, stem girth, leaf length,
petiole length and fruit yield
 Except stem height that showed no correlation with fruit
yield
 Highly significant variations exist in the fruit pulp of papaya
genotypes for nutritional composition

5. Conclusions
 The low diversity observed within the papaya
genotypes points to the need to collect more
papaya germplasm from other ecological zones in
order to widen the scope of this study.
 Moreover, variability can be generated by crossing
the genotypes in an appropriate mating design in
order to select for improved agronomic characters.
 Significant variation has been shown to exist
among the papaya genotypes for nutritional traits,
and hence selection can be an effective tool for
their improvement.

6. References
• Nakasone HY, Paull RE, (1998). Papaya In: Tropical fruits. CAB International,
Wallingford. Oxon. UK. pp 239-269.
• Samson J.A., (1986). Tropical fruits (2nd Ed), Longman Scientific and Technical,
New York. pp 256-335.
• SAS (2002) SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC, USA.
• Sofoware, A., 1997. Medicinal plants used in traditional medicine in Africa. 1st
edition; John Wiley and Sons Chichester New York, pp: 128-129.
Acknowledgements
We thank University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria and TETFUND for
their support.

7. Table 1: Mean values for agronomic characters and their
correlation with fresh fruit yield among ten papaya genotypes
Lines Stem height
(cm)
Stem girth
(cm)
Leaf length
(cm)
Petiole length
(cm)
Fresh fruit yield
per plant
(Kg/pl)
Fresh fruit yield per
hectare
(ton/ha)
CP001 144.5 14.1 34.6 53.8 7.1 17.9
CP002 138.2 14.9 37.6 53.3 11.9 33.0
CP003 181.0 18.2 43.6 70.5 18.4 51.1
CP004 182.5 16.4 42.9 52.3 13.1 34.5
CP005 175.0 14.3 37.4 62.9 10.6 29.5
CP006 138.3 12.2 36.1 41.3 3.0 8.2
CP007 189.5 16.7 46.3 84.0 9.3 25.7
CP008 209.0 18.5 41.8 67.9 6.7 12.5
CPO11 170.7 12.5 37.8 53.4 4.8 8.9
C012 175.5 18.8 52.8 78.5 30.3 84.0
Character Corr.
With Fresh Fruit
Yield
0.304 0..701** 0.560** 0.734** 0.992**

8. Table 3: Mean values for Nutritional composition in fruit pulp
among ten papaya genotypes
Lines DMC
%
LP
%
CF
%
CHO
%
P
(mg)
Ca
(mg)
Vit. C
(mg)
CP001 87.5ef 1.0c 1.0bc 82f 18.4d 31.6b 40abcd
CP002 90.1c 1.2ab 1.0bc 83.1d 21.1a 23.7g 41.2bc
CP003 88.8d 1.0c 1.5a 83.1d 17.2f 30.5c 39.8d
CP004 88.0e 1.1bc 0.9c 81.6e 20.4b 22.9h 42.0a
CP005 91.0b 1.2ab 0.9c 85.2b 19.2c 34.1f 35.4f
CP006 87.7ef 1.0c 1.2b 81.5e 18.0e 25.3f 32.5g
CP007 92.0a 0.8d 1.0bc 86.9a 15.2h 21.6i 43.4a
CP008 89.2d 1.3a 0.8c 84.2c 13.9i 27.1e 37.9e
CP011 84.9g 0.9de 1.5a 78.4g 16.2g 28.3d 37.9e
CP012 87.2f 0.8d 1.0bc 80.5f 12.4j 27.0e 39.1cde
Means with the same letters are not significantly different according to SNKT at 0.05 level of probability