SELECTION OF LOCAL POTATO BREEDING CLONES FOR YIELD AND TUBER CHARACTERISTICS IN TWO CROPPING SEASONS

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the main food crop grown in Mauritius to ensure food and nutrition security. In order to increase the level of self- sufficiency in ware production and reduce dependency on imported varieties, two trials were conducted at the Réduit Crop Research Station of the Food and Agricultural Research and Extension Institute in the first and second potato seasons of 2018 to assess the agronomic performance of 46 early generation potato clones with the commercial varieties Spunta and Safari. Both trials were laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications and data were collected on 18 growth and yield characteristics. Results showed that 18 clones gave marketable tuber yield above the national average yield of 25 t/ha in both the seasons. Averaged over seasons, 4 clones (142/161/1, 142/161/2, 142/161/9 and 29/5/17) recorded significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher marketable yield in the order of 41.1 t/ha to 51.7 t/ ha compared to Spunta (31.7 t/ha) and Safari (30.0 t/ha). The effect of interaction between clones and seasons indicated that both marketable and total yield decreased significantly by 41.7% and 37.5% in the second season. However, 3 clones produced high and consistent tuber yield in the first and second seasons indicating their adaptability to the tropical conditions. The 18 clones also presented desirable tuber characteristics with oval to long tubers, shallow eyes and tuber dry matter content of 17.4% to 22.6% with good potential for the retail fresh and processed markets. This first set of trials therefore demonstrates the potential of local potato breeding clones to replace the existing commercial varieties in terms of yield and tuber characteristics.