Prakash Bhattarai* and Giridhari Subedi
National Potato Research Programme/NARC, Khumaltar15, Lalitpur, Nepal
*Corresponding author’s email: prakash.narc.nprp@gmail.com
*ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7016-9472

Abstract

Sweet potato is one of the world's most important underexploited crops. The field experiments were carried out at Khumaltar, Lalitpur (1360 masl), Nepal from July to November 2021 and 2022 to select superior and high-yielding sweet potato genotypes particularly, in the mid-hills of Nepal. The trial was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications and consisted of ten sweet potato genotypes (CIP 194540.5, CIP 199062.1, CIP 105086.1, CIP 106861.3, CIP 440132, CIP 440293, CIP 187020.1, CIP 106906.1, CIP 105085.2, Kimichaur Seto) with two checks (Suntale Sakharkhand-1 and Benshisahar White). Significant differences were observed in vine length, marketable number and weight of tuberous roots per plant and yield. The pooled result revealed that the maximum number (5.73plant-1) of marketable tuber was produced in CIP 105085.2 followed by CIP 187020.1(5.27plant-1) but CIP 106906.1 produced the highest number (10.4plant-1) of non-marketable tuber. The genotype CIP 440293 produced the highest marketable tuber weight (0.561kgplant-1) and marketable tuber yield (31.16 tha-1) followed by CIP 105085.2 (0.555 kgplant-1 & 30.82 tha-1). Likewise, CIP 105085.2 produced the highest total tuberous root yield (37.32tha-1) followed by CIP 199062.1 (35.46 tha-1). The genotypes varied in terms of moisture, reducing sugar and β-carotene content, with the orange-fleshed CIP genotypes having higher levels of β-carotene than the white-fleshed local genotypes. Thus, the improved sweet potato genotypes namely CIP 105085.2, CIP 199062.1, CIP 440293 and CIP 187020.1 can be recommended to test on-farm for confirming the on-station result.