Effects Of Seed Borne Virus Infections On Selected Potato Cultivars In Kenya
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Date
2011Author
Lung’aho, C.
Chemining’wa, G.N.
Shibairo, S.I
Hutchinson, M.J.
Type
PresentationLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Seed borne viruses are a major problem to seed and ware potato growers because they cause
yield depression and reduction in quality of tubers. The effects of seed borne virus infections in
34 potato cultivars selected from the Kenyan potato germplasm collection were determined by
comparing the yield performance of plants grown from virus infected seed with those grown
from virus free seed during the 2007 short rains and 2008 long rains seasons. The treatments
were laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with a factorial arrangement and
replicated three times. Total yield was reduced by between 52.9 and 89.6% in 2007 and by
between 47.4 and 90.2% in 2008 due to seed borne virus infections. In 2007, ware yield was
reduced by 100% in 25 of the cultivars while in 2008, 24 cultivars had their proportion of ware
yield reduced by 100% due to seed borne virus infections. Plants grown from virus infected seed
produced between 3.0 and 6.3 tubers per plant in 2007 and between 2.3 and 7.3 tubers per plant
in 2008. Plants grown from healthy seed tubers had between 6.0 and 14.0 tubers per plant in
2007 and between 5.7 and 14.3 tubers per plant in 2008. Reduction in tuber weights in 2007
ranged from 6.4 and 76.0% while the reduction in tuber weights varied between 10.2 and 77.4%.
This study demonstrated that seed borne virus infections significantly reduced total yield, ware
yield, seed yield, average tuber weight, and number of tubers per plant but the magnitude of the
reductions varied among the cultivars. Farmers can improve potato productivity by planting
disease-free seed tubers and minimizing current-season infections particularly where own saved
seed is preserved for use later.