ASSESSMENT OF SWEETPOTATO (Ipomea batatas L.) PRODUCTION AND EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT STORAGE MATERIALS FOR ROOTS TO BE USED AS A SOURCE OF PLANTING MATERIAL

Abstract

Sweetpotato is commonly known as the poor man’s crop in Ethiopia and one of the food security crops in the country. However, its production and productivity is constrained by the limited access of quality planting material at the onset of the rainy season. Therefore, a household survey was conducted to determine its major production constraints in the three major sweetpotato growing Kebeles (Gere Bulgita, Tikare Kokere and Wera Boshera) of Misrak Badewacho district. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the households. The result revealed that drought (27%), rodents attack during storage (42%), shortage of planting materials (15%) and lack of suitable storage (30%) were identified as the major sweetpotato production constraints in the study area. Based on the survey result the second experiment was conducted to evaluate the storage and growth performance of roots of selected sweetpotato varieties under different storage types as sources of planting materials. The experiment was consisted of three sweetpotato varieties (Awassa-83, Ogan-Sagan and Wolaita-local) with five storage types (straw, soil, ash, sawdust and sand storage) in Complete Randomized Design in three replications. Result revealed that, the combination of Awassa-83 variety and sand storage were performed better in percentage of decay, weight loss and weevil damage; whereas the main effects of variety and storage types were significantly different in length of vine and number of vine per storage. Thus, Awassa-83 variety stored in sand storage showed better performance after storage and can be recommended for maintaining the storage roots during dry periods and access of quality vines at the onset of the rainy season.