Abstract:
In Ethiopia, salt affected soils are prevalent in the Rift Valley and lowland areas. Potatoes,
which grow in different parts of Ethiopia, are salt sensitive. This experiment was
conducted with the objective of screening potato varieties: namely Gabbissa, Chirro and
Zemen for salt tolerance by the use of some agronomic traits such as days to seed
germination, plant height, number of branches per plant, number of leaves per plant, days
to flowering, number of flowers per plant, root length, number of tubers per plant, tuber
weight and plant biomass. Three potato varieties were subjected to four salinity levels (0,
60, 120, and 180mM) under greenhouse condition. The experimental design was
completely randomized design with three replications. Results showed that salinity
negatively affected all measured parameters in a concentration dependent manner.
Comparison between the varieties showed that variety Gabbissa performed better than the
two varieties, suggesting this variety is relatively salt tolerant. Whereas variety Chirro is
moderately salt sensitive and variety Zemen is highly salt sensitive compared to the rest.
