Vol. 12 No. 2
Genetic variability for yield, related traits and reaction to late blight in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) genotypes at Sinana, South Eastern Ethiopia
Author(s): G. ASEFA, W. MOHAMMED, AND T. ABEBE
Abstract: This study was conducted to assessing the naturernand magnitude of variability for tuber yield, yield related and late blightrnresistance traits. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete blockrndesign with three replications at Sinana Agricultural Research Center. Therngenotypes showed highly significant (P<0.01) rndifferences for all the characters studied. Genotypes exhibited widernranges of mean values for all characters. The highest total tuber yield (46.1 trnha-1) was obtained from the advanced clone,rnCIP-392640.524 followed by Belete (41t.ha-1) .rnLate blight appeared early on farmers cultivar Kellacho (48 days after plantingrn) and lately on CIP-399062.102(74 days after planting). Percent severity indexrn(PSI) and area under disease progress curve ( AUDPC) ranged between 33-39.7%rnand 105 to 2370, respectively, for eleven newly introduced clones and thernreleased variety Belete. These genotypes can be categorized as moderatelyrnresistances. Other genotypes had higherrnPSI and AUDPC and fall under late blight susceptible category. High genotypicrn(GCV) and phenotypic (PCV) coefficient of variations computed which ranged fromrn22.7 to 51.9% and from 32.8 to 56.7%, respectively, for all the traits exceptrnfor days to maturity with low values computed for both. Heritability in broadrnsense (H2) and genetic advance as percent of the meanrn(GAM at 5% selection intensity ) ranged from 44.5 to 89.5% and 14 to 98.1%,rnrespectively. Both H2 andrnGAM high for total tuber yield, marketable tuber yield, average tuber weight,rnmarketable tuber number per hill, percent severity index, days to flowering andrnarea under disease progress curve. This suggested these traits are amenable tornselection. The study revealed that the presence of considerable variability inrntested genotypes for economic importance traits and the higher chance ofrnselecting genotypes with high yield and moderately resistant to late blight.rnBut it is necessary to continue the evaluation of genotypes across seasons andrnlocations to identify genotypes that could be released as variety for the studyrnarea.
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