Performance evaluation of orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties at different intra-row spacing in North–West areas of Amhara regional state, Ethiopia

Abstract

Orange fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) is one of the root crops that significantly contribute to ensuring food and nutrition security across most areas in Ethiopia. Its production remained very low (8 t ha − 1 ) as compared to the world average of about 14.8 t ha − 1 which is mainly attributed to the use of low-yielding variety including inappropriate intra-row spacing. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the effect of varieties and intra-row spacing on the yield and yield-related traits of released OFSP varieties. It was conducted using four released OFSP varieties ( Alamura , Dilla , Kulfo and Birtukane ) and three levels of intra-row spacing (20, 30 and 40 cm) in factorial combinations. This field experiment was designed in randomized Complete Blocks with three replications in North–West areas of Amhara regional state, Ethiopia during the 2021 rainy season. The results obtained showed that the interaction effect of varieties and intra-row spacing had significant effect on days to physiological maturity, vine length, number of storage roots per plant, storage root length, storage root diameter, above-ground fresh weight, storage root weight, and storage root yield. However, vine survival rate was significantly affected by the main effects of varieties and intra-row spacing, but not by their interaction. Treatment combination of Birtukane variety with 30 cm intra row spacing gave the highest storage root yield of 22.8 t ha − 1 . Based on the cost-benefit analysis, this treatment also gave the highest net benefit of 397,855.3 ETB ha⁻¹ with an acceptable marginal rate of return (MRR) of 408.4%.