Development of high root yielding and consumer preferred orange fleshed sweet potato genotypes for urban agriculture in umudike rain fed agro-ecology of southeastern Nigeria

Agriculture in the urban is practiced in a limited land with high population density, this suggested reasons to develop sweetpotato genotypes with high root yield per unit area. On this premise, a study was conducted in Umudike Southeastern Nigeria using 13 selected open pollinated sweetpotato genotypes in a 3m x 3m plot size of 9m2 in a randomized complete block design and replicated 3 times. The planting material was of 4 node vine cutting, planted on ridges spaced at 1.0m and planting at 0.3m within rows of sweetpotato stands. Field maintenance included: application of 15:15:15 N.P.K fertilizer using band method. The field was kept weed-free until harvested 120 days after planting. Data collected included total number of enlarge roots, number of large roots, total root weight, weight of large root, and weight of above ground biomass. Consumer acceptability test was conducted in six metropolitan cities in the South eastern Nigeria using 9-point hedonic scale with 20 man panels from each of the urban areas. Analysis of variance and means separation using standard error of means were computed on the harvested parameters. Harvest index was used to select high yielding genotypes per unit area. However, Results obtained from the harvest index and culinary evaluation indicated that yield alone should not be the only criterion for variety selection. Culinary quality based on consumer preferred traits should also be considered. Based on this, the following genotypes were selected for metropolitan cultivation and consumption: 440293, EA/11/022, EA/11/024 and EA/11/030.