Early Maturing Sweet Potato Varieties for the Highlands of PNG.

Abstract

Following the drought of 1997, it became clear that rural people in PNG need early maturing crops, which would produce food sooner rather than later during the post drought period. This paper reports three trials on 30 varieties of sweet potato for earliness to mature. The first two trials were conducted between 2001 and 2002, and trial three was a follow-up of the top nine selected varieties from the previous trials. The trials were conducted in Aiyura, Eastern Highlands Province. The third trial was conducted in 2003. This activity was part of the World Bank funded Drought Response Project. The trials were laid out as Split Plot Design with three blocks. In the first two trials, there were four harvests (4th, 5th, 6th and 7th month after planting), which served as main plots and 30 varieties as subplots. Those varieties that yielded at the fourth and fifth months were analysed for earliness. Of the 10 high yielding varieties in the two trials, six were common. Based on this, nine varieties that yielded over 4 tonnes per hectare were selected for earliness and recommended to farmers. Following that, the third trial screened these nine top performing varieties to identify the earliest yielding varieties. The harvest dates were 3rd and 4th month after planting. Seven varieties (WHCK 007, SSYK 026, PRAP 469, PRAP 417, WHCK 005, SKK 010 and WBS 010) gave acceptable yields (4-7 tonnes per hectare) at three months and 10-14 tonnes / ha at four months and can therefore be recommended as very early maturing.