Yemane Tsehaye

Enhancing Production of Sweet Potato Crop in Tigray Region, Ethiopia: Evaluation of Sweet Potato [ipomoea Batatas (L.) Lam.] Varieties in South and South East Areas of Tigray, Ethiopia Yemane Tsehaye

Seven sweet potato varieties were tested at three locations of Tigray in 2012 cropping season. to evaluate the yield and yield components of the varieties in southern and eastern zones of Tigray. The experiment was laid out in RCBD with three replications and in plot size of 4.2m x 2.4m. Net harvestable plot area was 7.2 m2 with inter and intra-row spacing of 0.60m and 0.30m respectively. Combined analyses of variance for the three locations indicated the existence of significant to highly significant (P < 0.01) genotype differences for almost all traits. Moreover, AMMI analysis for the total storage root yield also showed highly significant (P<0.01) difference for all the variance components and genotype main effect contributed more to the total variability than the other components. The model captured 83.4 % of the interaction sum of squares with the first IPCA axis (in 58.3% of the interaction degrees of freedom) and 16.6% by the second IPCA axis (with 41.7% of the G x E d.f). Based on the analysis, LO and Tulla varieties gave highest root yield, followed by Kulfo. Thus, LO and Tulla varieties should be widely distributed to farmers of the testing locations of the region.