Assessing the Yield Performance of Improved and Local Potato (solanum tuberosum l.) Cultivars Grown in Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Potato is an important cash and food security crop in Eastern Ethiopia. However, the yield of the crop is very low due to a number of constraints. Cultivation of low yielding local cultivars is one of the constraints. Therefore, field experiments were conducted at Haramaya and Hirna with the objective of assessing the yield performances of local (farmers’) and improved potato cultivars during the main cropping season of 2011. The treatments consisted of five released cultivars (Badhasa, Chala, Chiro, Gabbisa, Zemen) and four local (farmers’) potato cultivars (Batte, Daddafa, Jarso, Mashenadima). The experiment was laid out as a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The highest total tuber yield was produced by cultivar Badhasa (37.39 t/ha) while the lowest by Mashenadima (19.46 t/ha) at Hirna. In case of tuber number, Jarso produced (24.37) highest tubers per hill and Mashenadima (7.04) least tubers per hill. Minimum average tuber weight was produced by cultivar Jarso (31.37 g) and maximum by Mashenadima (88.93 g). Zemen at Haramaya had higher (86.60%) harvest index and least was obtained from Daddafa (70.10%) at Hirna.

Keywords: potato (solanum tuberosum l.), yield Performance, Improved, local, Ethiopia