| dc.description.abstract | Sweet potato is among the drought-resistant crops that take a short period to mature.
Therefore, sweet potato plays a significant role in food security in Kenya because of its high
degree of flexibility. Embu West Sub County's main economic activity is agriculture, which
is the economic pillar of Embu County. Most farmers at the grassroots level have not been
able to access proper fertilization on their farms because of a lack of adequate and authentic
knowledge. This study focused on the sweet potato fertilization regime, especially the
application of phosphorous. The of study's objectives were; to determine the yield potential
of three sweet potato varieties, to determine the effect of P levels on growth and yield of
sweet potatoes and to evaluate the effect of interaction between the sweet potato varieties
and P levels. The study was carried out in Embu west at KARLO EMBU farm in two
different seasons season 1 during the long rains (April to September2016) while season 2
was carried out during the short rains (November 2016 to April 2017). Land was cleared,
dug and harrowed to fine tilth manually. Using RCBD, land was divided into three blocks.
Each block had twelve plots each measuring three meters by three meters. Each plot
received a combination of two treatments that is sweet potato variety and a specific level of
P. Treatments was randomly assigned on the experimental units. The sweet potato varieties
used were SPK004(V1), Kenspot 3(V2) and Kenspot 4(V3).The P fertilizer levels used were
0 kg/ha(P1), 25 kg/ha(P2), 50 kg/ha(P3), and 75 kg/ha(P4). Data on specific growth and
yield parameters was collected throughout the study period, the collected data was
summarized using excel. SPSS version 23 was used for ANOVA, at α=0.05.For treatment
means that were significantly different LSD as Post hoc test was used to separate them. The
study showed significant yield potential difference in all yield parameters among the three
sweet potato varieties with Kenspot 4 being the highest producer of both marketable tubers
yield and biomass above the ground. The study showed that the amount of P applied
significantly affect growth and yield of sweet potatoes with a P level of 50 kg/ha being the
recommended rate. According to this study, interaction between the variety of sweet
potatoes and the P levels applied had no significant influence on the growth and yield of
sweet potato | en_US |
