More Crop Per Drop: The Magic of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L.)
Water is the most valuable resource in agriculture. Agricultural development in semi-arid eastern Kenya is essentially dependent on intermittent rainfall. An accurate estimate of sweet potato water usage and productivity is considered a significant feature of conservation agriculture under such climatic conditions. Methodology: The research was conducted for two seasons, with the aim of quantifying the water use efficiencies of two sweet potato varieties, Kabode and Bungoma.
Assuming that there were no variations in water-use efficiency between the two varieties. The experiment was established as RCBD for the two seasons. Treatments comprised of sole sweet potato varieties of Kabode and Bungoma, together with their intercrops with common beans.
These results provide an acumen for decision making in the setting of climate change. Conclusions: Kabode variety differed significantly with Bungoma variety in their abilities to efficiently use water, thus portraying its adaptability in such a peculiar environment. The climatic environment: dew point temperatures and saturation pressure deficit had no significant impact on sweet potato water use efficiency.
The present study investigated the impacts of environmental conditions on water use efficiency and productivity of sweet potatoes. Kabode variety differed significantly with Bungoma variety in their abilities to efficiently use water, thus portraying its adaptability in such a peculiar environment. The climatic environment: dew point temperatures and saturation pressure deficit had no significant impact on sweet potato water use efficiency. There’s still a discrepancy of unexplained causes of variation in sweet potato WUE which may have been attributed to other factors not considered in this study. These findings may provide acumens for decision making in the setting of climate change and also for decision making at the beginning of the season, since the difference among variety’s CWP might not be known to everybody
