Abstract
Under-exploited crops such as Lablab purpureus are regarded a pathway towards alleviating
the food and nutritional security in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed at evaluating the morphoagronomic
diversity present in 277 lablab accessions based on 38 morpho-agronomic traits. The
experiment was laid out in an Augmented design across two main cropping seasons in Tanzania.
Qualitative data was analysed using pivot tables. The Generalized Linear Model (PROC GLM),
Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were used
to analyse variation of 14 quantitative traits. The findings revealed the presence of wide variability
of the qualitative traits in the studied accessions. Significant differences were observed among
accessions, between seasons, the interaction of blocks and season, and the season and accession effects
in most of the traits. Most of the traits had high significant differences in relation to contrast among
accessions, among checks and between accessions and checks. The first five principal components
cumulatively accounted for 61.89% of the total variability among the accessions studied. Furthermore,
cluster analysis grouped the accessions into four major clusters. This results suggest the 14 morphoagronomic
traits can successfully discriminate and show presence of wide diversity vital for selection
and hybridization program of lablab species.