Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is grown as culture of rent for small farmers in Niger. In the present study, eight lettuce morphotypes from Zinder region in Niger Republic have been assessed for their agronomic performance traits. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Our results showed significant differences between the morphotypes for several agro-morphological traits. The principal component analysis of the eleven traits that were measured revealed that the first two components explain 80.18% of the total variation. In addition, our results showed that four of the eleven studied traits contribute the most to discriminating the eight morphotypes.
Keywords: Agronomic performance, lettuce, Lactuca sativa L., multivariate analysis, Niger Republic