Abstract            Volume:5  Issue-2  Year-2017         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

The present work has been conducted in order to valorize the traditional cotton genetic diversity through an ethnobotany survey. Within this framework, prospections and collections were carried out in three producing agro-ecological zones of cotton in Benin through 38 townships. The results of the investigation put in evidence 135 traditional cotton made up of four types of cotton (61% box, 26% feral, 10% volunteer and 3% wild) and belonging to five species: Gossypium hirsutum, Gossypium arboreum, Gossypium trilobum, Gossypium herbaceum and Gossypium barbadense. G. hirsutum regroups the most traditional cotton (28.1%). All age groups are holders of the accessions of traditional cotton with a prevalence of the producers aged of 40 to 50 years. The organs of the traditional cotton are used without rituals and with rituals to cure natural and para-natural diseases. The diffusion of the seeds (100%) is made between themselves in endogenous way and no lucrative. The survey seems to confirm the localization of Benin in a geographical area with strong morphological diversity of cotton. These cottons constitute significant gene bank for gene recombination in breeding program.

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