Organização e caracterização das sementes dos acessos da coleção de trabalho de Feijão-Caupi da Embrapa Amazônia Oriental.

Abstract

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is a food culture that has been part of the Paraense diet since the mid-18th century. In addition, it is an important generator of jobs for economic occupation and formal work, supplying a productive chain that extends from the family farmer to the business, passing through various actors from the commerce to the consumer in small cities and large urban centers. Due to its market perspective, cowpea has been rapidly inserted into Brazilian agribusiness, with the expansion of its cultivation from the North and Northeast regions to other regions, such as the Midwest. The objective of this research was the organization and characterization of the seeds of Embrapa Amazonia Oriental's cowpea work collection, allowing the creation of a code to identify the accesses and preliminary characterization in: common name, code in other institutions, institution of or classification, based on the genetic code and the origin of the access, commercial group, prevailing characteristics of the cultigroup, commercial class, commercial subclass, number of colors, primary color of the seed, color secondary color distribution, halo presence, halo color, integument texture, integument brightness, seed shape, seed size based on the weight of 100 seeds, seed length, seed width, seed height, length of the thread ring, width of the thread ring, length of the thread and width of the thread. The code created allowed the organization, easy identification and handling of the accesses of the collection. The characterization was performed and made it possible to verify that, although relatively small, it contains a wide genetic variability for practically all the evaluated characters.