Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science 7(3): 332-338 (2022) hps://doi.org/10.26832/24566632.2022.070305 This content is available online at AESA Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science Journal homepage: journals.aesacademy.org/index.php/aaes e-ISSN: 2456-6632 ARTICLE HISTORY ABSTRACT Received: 13 June 2022 Revised received: 15 August 2022 Accepted: 28 August 2022 A field experiment was conducted at the Naonal Root Crops Research Instute, Umudike, Southeastern Nigeria during the 2015 and 2016 cropping seasons to evaluate diversity among F 1 populaon of sweet potato, namely: Sau × 442162 (6), Ligri × Faara (17), Sau × Bohye (17), including two checks (Umuspo 3 and TIS 87/0087). This experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replicates under rainfed condion. Data on fresh storage root yield were recorded at 120 days aſter planng. Analysis of variance, corre- laon and principal component analysis were ulized for data analysis. The study revealed that yield of fresh storage root showed significant differences (P< 0.05) among the sweet potato genotypes. Sau X Bohye produced the highest storage root yield (19.33 t/ha) in 2015 and performed beer than the naonal check TIS 87/0087 that recorded a storage root yield of 10.84 t/ha. The result from the study showed that out of the forty genotypes evaluated, twenty-six (26) genotypes recorded aack of C. punccollis. The extent of the damge recorded among the genotypes aacked by C. punccollis ranged from severe damage to lile damage among the genotypes that recorded fresh storage root damage. SauXBo- hye/11, SauXBohye/13, SauXBohye/17 recorded severe damage caused by C. punccollis while LigriXFaara/15 recorded moderate damaged caused by C. punccollis. Fiſteen (15) genotypes did not record any infestaon by Cylas punccollis. All characters except unmar- ketable storage root weight at harvest exhibited posive and significant (P< 0.01) correlaon with total roots weight (yield). Principal component analysis had three main principal compo- nents explaining 84.25% of the total variaon with number of marketable roots, weight of marketable roots, storage root yield and Cylas incidence contribung the most to the first PCA. These genotypes could possess resistance genes to Cylas punccollis and these genotypes could be incorporated in breeding programs for further trail. ©2022 Agriculture and Environmental Science Academy Keywords Resistance Storage root Sweet potato weevil Yield Citaon of this arcle: Joseph, U. I., Harry, G. I., & Uchenna, N. C. (2022). Screening of some sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) genotypes for yield and damage by Cylas punccollis under rainfed condions in Umudike, Southeastern Nigeria. Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science, 7(3), 332-338, hps://dx.doi.org/10.26832/24566632.2022.070305 Screening of some sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) genotypes for yield and damage by Cylas punccollis under rainfed condions in Umudike, Southeastern Nigeria Ulasi I. Joseph 1* , Gamaliel I. Harry 2 and Nwune C. Uchenna 3 1,2 Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Uyo, P.M.B 1017, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, NIGERIA 3 Department of Crop Science and Horculture, Nnamdi Azikwe University, P.M.B. 5025, Ifite, Awka, NIGERIA * Corresponding authors E-mail: ifeanyijoseph@uniuyo.edu.ng INTRODUCTION Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) is a principal crop con- sumed as food across the globe and ulized as an importance raw material for industrial purposes (Korada et al., 2010). Sweet potato is culvated across different connents of the world on approximately 8.21 million hectare (ha) with an esmated annual yield of 104.02 million tonnes (FAOSTAT, 2014). The worlds annual average yield of sweet potato is 15.9 tha -1 , aver- age yield in Africa (9.6 tha -1 ), China (22.0 tha -1 ) and Nigeria (3.0 tha -1 ) (FAO, 2015; Nwankwo and Bassey, 2021). Sweet potato producon in Nigeria is challenged with numerous constraints ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE