Producing White Yam for the Export Market: The influence of Seed Sett Size and Planting Density on Tuber Sizes

The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of seed sett sizes and planting density on the tuber size and yields of yam. The treatments were arranged in a split-split plot design with two premium Dioscorea rotundata varieties (Pona and Dente) as main plot. Seed sett sizes (farmers' sett size 350 g, half farmers' sett size 175g) as subplot and Planting density (6944 plt/ha; 8333 plt/ha; 10417plt/ha; 13889 plt/ha; 20833 plt/ha) as sub-sub plot in 2014. Minisetts (50 g) a popular yam multiplication technique was added in 2015.

Danquah, E. O.; Ennin, S. A.; Frimpong, F.; Acheampong, P. P.; Akom, M.

2018

English

The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of seed sett sizes and planting density on the tuber size and yields of yam. The treatments were arranged in a split-split plot design with two premium Dioscorea rotundata varieties (Pona and Dente) as main plot. Seed sett sizes (farmers' sett size 350 g, half farmers' sett size 175g) as subplot and Planting density (6944 plt/ha; 8333 plt/ha; 10417plt/ha; 13889 plt/ha; 20833 plt/ha) as sub-sub plot in 2014. Minisetts (50 g) a popular yam multiplication technique was added in 2015. The results showed no significant interactions in the 3 way and 2 way factors. However, seed set size and planting density had significant (P< 0.05) effect on tuber sizes and yields. Whiles mini-sett 50 g had a significantly lower average tuber size of 0.22 kg/tuber, farmers' sett size 350 g and half farmers' size 175 g had similar and bigger average tuber sizes of 2.04 kg/tuber and 2.02kg/tuber respectively. Similar trends were observed on tuber yields with farmers' sett size 350g and half farmers' size - 175 g recording similar and significantly higher yield of 24.23t/ha and 22.85t/ha compared to mini-sett 50 g which had lower yield of 3.94t/ha. Low planting densities (6944 - 8333 plt/ha) and high planting densities (10417 - 20833plt/ha) recorded tuber sizes ranging between 2.48 2.55 kg/tuber and 1.6 - 2.0 kg/tuber for 2014 and 2.51 - 1.95 kg/tuber and 1.47 - 1.11kg/tuber in 2015. The similar tuber size and yield of famers' sett size and half farmers' sett size suggest reducing farmers' current sett size to half and planting density of about 20000 plt/ha on ridges would maximize profit.

Danquah, E. O., Ennin, S. A., Frimpong, F., Acheampong, P. P., & Akom, M. (2018). Producing White Yam for Export: The Influence of Seed Sett Size and Planting Density on Tuber Size. Agricultural and Food Science Journal of Ghana, 11(1), 929-936.