Participatory variety selection of improved orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties at Gedeb district of Gedeo zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) is a bio-fortified crop that is a rich source of beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) which is necessary for combating the problems related to vitamin A deficiency (VAD). There is an increasing demand by farmers for production and consumption of improved OFSP varieties in the study areas. In order to respond to farmer requests, participatory variety selection trial was conducted with the objective of selecting superior OFSP varieties with farmer’s preferred traits. The trial was conducted during 2019 and 2020 growing seasons across three sites in Gedeb district of Gedeo Zone. Six varieties, including one old OFSP variety as a check were tested in a mother trial using each site as a single replication. For a baby trial, one new and one old variety was given to more than 30 model farmers around each site. Data were collected on agronomic traits such as root yield, above ground biomass, harvest index and sweet potato virus disease from the mother trial and analysis of variance was conducted. The combined analysis showed the presence of significant differences (p≤0.05) among tested genotypes for observed traits. The highest root yield was recorded for Dilla (23.11 t/ha), followed by Alamura (22.57 t/ha), Kabode (18.66 t/ha) and NASPOT-13 which produced the lowest root yield of 12.10 t/ha as compared to the others. Demonstrations of various sweet potato based foods were also made and 18 farmers (13 male and 5 female) were invited for variety assessment and selection based on the recipes. These farmers set sensorial attributes like flavor, taste, texture, and hardness of the cooked roots for taste-tests. Considering overall ranking of the six parameters (taste-tests) and agronomic traits such as root yield, above ground biomass, resistance to virus disease, varieties Dilla, Alamura, and Kabode were selected as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices, respectively. Therefore, scaling up of these OFSP varieties should be done in the study area and areas with similar agroecologies in order to alleviate the problems related with VAD.