Understanding the nature and magnitude of variability existing among sweetpotato genetic materials
for important traits is vital for the effective utilization of such materials for breeding purposes. Eighteen
landraces from diverse origins, plus three released cultivars as checks, were evaluated in two
contrasting locations, using nine agronomic and eight morphological traits of the crop, to estimate the
nature and magnitude of the variability among the genetic materials, to determine the relationships
among the traits, and to identify the important yield-related traits among the collections using
multivariate tools. The principal component analysis identified number of marketable and unmarketable
roots, total number of roots, weight of marketable and unmarketable roots, total root weights, incidence
and severity of root Cylas spp, length of biggest, medium and smallest marketable roots, number of
branches, as well as stand count at harvest as important traits that could be used to differentiate the
landraces. The canonical variate analysis showed that the observed variation among the traits occurred
mostly between-groups than within-groups, and that it was largely influenced by total root weight,
weight of marketable roots, number of marketable roots, and total number of roots. Generally, all the
traits, except stand count at harvest, exhibited positive and significant (P