American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2014, 5, 3328-3339 Published Online October 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/ajps http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2014.521348 How to cite this paper: Omotobora, B.O., et al. (2014) Greenhouse and Field Evaluation of Selected Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) LAM) Accessions for Drought Tolerance in South Africa. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 5, 3328-3339. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2014.521348 Greenhouse and Field Evaluation of Selected Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) LAM) Accessions for Drought Tolerance in South Africa Babajide Olusegun Omotobora 1 , Patrick Olusanmi Adebola 2* , David Mxolisi Modise 1 , Sunette Marlize Laurie 2 , Abe Shegro Gerrano 2 1 School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of South Africa, Florida, South Africa 2 Agricultural Research Council-Vegetable and Ornamental Plants Institute, Pretoria, South Africa Email: * adebolap@arc.agric.za Received 25 July 2014; revised 20 September 2014; accepted 23 October 2014 Academic Editor: Nils-Ove Bertholdsson, Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Sweetpotato is a major staple food in the world. It is a good source of carbohydrates, vitamin A, vitamin C and protein. The maximum production potential of the crop is being hampered by se- vere drought which ravages most parts of Africa. The main aim of this study therefore was to screen accessions of sweetpotato for drought tolerance in a quick screening method, followed by field screening with a view to identify accessions that can perform well under water stress condi- tions. Fifty sweetpotato accessions consisting of cultivars and breeding lines collected from the ARC-VOPI gene bank were planted for drought screening in the glass house for six weeks during which water was withheld to induce stress. Observations were made on number of dead plants and days to wilting point. The results were analyzed and 12 best performing accessions were se- lected for field trials. The field trial was carried out in Lwamondo, Limpopo province, a drought prone area in South Africa, under rain-fed conditions. The best performing accessions were Za- pallo, Tacna, Ejumula, 2004-9-2 and Ndou. Keywords Accessions, Drought, Sweetpotato, Tolerance * Corresponding author.