Abstract

There are cassava cultivars containing low cyanide content, such as Hanatee cultivar which has root low yield and cassava cultivars containing high cyanide content which has high root yield, such as Kasetsart 50, Huai Bong 60 and Huai Bong 80. Cassava breeding project had the objective to cross between commercial cultivars and low cyanide cultivars for the hybrid having high root yield and low cyanide content. However, pollination is a process that requires skilled labor and operating time, and the number of seeds obtained from successful pollination is less than the number of seeds collected from the open-pollination. The objective of this study is to compare root yield and cyanide content in root of hybrid cassava which were obtained from open-pollination and crosses between specific hybrids of Hanatee and commercial cultivars. The results showed that open pollinated group have a chance of obtaining high yield as well as the crossed group, but they had more cyanide content than those in crossed group. Therefore, the collection of open pollinated seed is suggested for high root yield hybrids with the recommendation for screening of cyanide content.