Evaluation of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) varieties for yield and yield components

Abstract

Lack of well adapted potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) varieties is a production problem accounting for low yield. Farmers grow local landraces. A field experiment was conducted to investigate the performance of potato varieties for yield and yield components from 2013 to 2015 under rain fed condition using improved varieties and a local landrace. There were differences among varieties for all traits. Year had little effect on most traits except for days to emergence, days to flowering and days to maturity. Only days to emergence and average number of stems per plant were affected by the variety by year interaction. The improved varieties outperformed than the local landrace for the majority of traits studied except that the local landrace emerges, flowers and matures earlier than the others. The varieties Belete and Guassa were superior for tuber weight, tuber yield and average number of stems per plant. 'Belete' and 'Guassa' had tuber yields that were 155 and 136.6% greater than the local landrace. Moreover, these two varieties have larger tuber size which may be good means to get market value better return for the farmer and are comparably good in all other studied traits. Hence, they are recommended for the area and similar agro-ecologies. Key words: Solanum tuberosum, correlation, Ethiopia, traits, varieties.