Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(5): 738-742 738 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.705.089 Agronomic Evaluation of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) Germplasm Seema Gupta 1* , Sunil Pareek 2 , K.D. Ameta 1 , D.K. Sarolia 3 , R.A. Kaushik 1 and H.K. Jain 1 1 Department of Horticulture, RCA, MPUAT, Udaipur (Rajasthan)-313001, India 2 National Institute of Food Technology Enterpreneurship and Management, Kundli, Haryana, India 3 Central Institute for Arid Horticulture, Bikaner, Rajasthan, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Sweet potato (Ipomoe batata L.), which originated in tropical America, has become a very important crop in the Asian tropical and temperate countries (Bharathi et al., 2005). Its economic importance is next to the major starch producing food crop such as wheat, rice, barley, potato and cassava. About 90% of sweet potato in the world is grown in Asia, mostly in the East and to some extent in the Southeast Asia (Villareal, 1982). With its wide adaptability, high yielding ability and tolerance to enviornmental stress, sweet potato plays an important role in many developing countries for food supplementation, vegetable use and starch processing (Bourke, 1982). Tuber production of sweet potato depends greatly on cultivar, time of planting, local climatic condition and cultural techniques followed. Sweet potato is a highly heterozygous and cross pollinated crop in which many of the traits show continuous variation. Since it is highly heterozygous, there is extensive variability within the species. Conservation of genetic diversity within a crop species is the basis of all variety improvement (Tsegaye et al., 2007). However, if the improved variety replaces „traditional farmers‟ variety as it often does, the result International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 05 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Present investigation entitled “Agronomic Evaluation of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) Germplasm‟ was carried out in the Department of Horticulture, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur to evaluate yield and other related agronomic variation in sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) germplasm”. In this research, sixteen diversified sweet potato germplasm were evaluated under randomized block design with three replications. The result reveled maximum tuber length (25.11cm) in „Sree Nandini‟, maximum tuber diameter (75.33 mm) in „Sree Vardhini‟, maximum tuber number per vine (10.13) in „ST- 10‟, maximum tuber weight (223.60 g) in „H-109-2‟, maximum tuber yield per vine (733.25 g/vine) in CO-3-4 and maximum tuber yield per ha (40.73 t ha -1 ) in CO-3-4. However, Overall with respect to agronomic character i.e. „CO-3-4‟ found to be superior over other genotypes. Keywords Sweet potato, Germplasm, Attributes, Physiological, Biochemical Accepted: 07 April 2018 Available Online: 10 May 2018 Article Info