Assessment of sweetpotato germplasm for selection of day-neutral genotypes for tropical India

Sixty-one superior genotypes which included germplasm collections and prebreeding lines of sweetpotato maintained in National Active germplasm Site (NAGS) at ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute including released variety Sree Arun as control were evaluated for six seasons for finding out stable performers over seasons. The experiment was first conducted during kharif and rabi with 29 genotypes in both seasons. The eleven high yielders were carried forward to following kharif season with nine new genotypes in season 3. The best 17 were carried forward to fourth season and evaluated. 23 new genotypes with seven from previous trials were evaluated in fifth season. The high yielding genotypes from previous seasons were evaluated in sixth season. The observed variable was yield (kg per plant). The dry matter, starch, sugar, fibre and ash were analysed in selected accessions. The genetic merit of each genotype was evaluated by best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) using restricted maximum likelihood (REML) for variance component estimation. The least square mean across six seasons over three years for tuber yield showed 526/7 (S-1609) as stable yielding accession, followed by S-1401 and considered photo-insensitive. These were having high BLUP effect and hence considered stable or consistent performers over six seasons. Amongst the tested samples, two (526/7 and S-1401) were found to be top scorers as compared to the other samples in terms of sensory evaluation criteria especially texture and sweetness and overall taste and hence submitted for multilocation trials in All India Coordinated Research project on tuber crops.

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