Abstract:
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important cash and food crop in Ethiopia. However,
inappropriate seed tuber size and lack of improved varieties across the production areas are
among the major factors affecting the yield and quality of potato. Cognizant of this, an
experiment was conducted at Dangla district, Awi zone (Northwestern Ethiopia) to study the
effect of seed tuber cutting on yield, yield components and quality of potato (Solanum tuberosum
L.) varieties under irrigated condition. A combination of two improved varieties (‘Belete’ and
‘Jalene’) and one local variety, along with four types of potato seed tubers (whole large tuber
(75g), whole medium tuber (39-75g), half cut large tuber and half cut medium tuber) were laid
out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) under factorial arrangement. There were a
total of 36 experimental units (plots) with three replications. A Two way-ANOVA was carried out
to test the significance effect of the treatments at 5% (P<0.05) level of significance. The results
showed that there was no interaction effect among treatments. However, the phenological,
growth, yield and quality parameters were significantly affected by the two main factors
(cuttings and varieties). On the other hand, cutting of seed tubers did not significantly affect days
to 50% emergence, days to 50% flowering, plant height, average tuber weight, tuber size
distributions, total tuber yields, specific gravity, and dry matter contents. Similarly, varieties
alone did not significantly affect the average tuber number per plant. The variety ‘Belete’
showed superior performance for both marketable and total tuber yield over the other two
varieties (‘Jalene’ and the local variety) as well as whole large and half large tuber size also
showed superior performance for both marketable and total tuber yield over the other seed
tuber sizes. The highest net benefit with an acceptable level of Marginal Rate of Return (MRR)
was obtained when variety ‘Belete’ was planted using whole large tubers. Hence, use of variety
‘Belete’ in combination with whole large and half large seed tubers for potato production under
Dangla district condition is recommended.
Key words: Potato variety, cut seed tuber, growth parameters, yield related parameters, quality
parameters