Evaluation of Sweet Potato [Ipomoea Batatas (L.) Lam.] Accessions for their Physicochemical Attributes in Ethiopia

The productivity of sweet potato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.] Is mainly dependant on the acquisition accessions which posses desirable traits and development of high yielding varieties with desired quality attributes. We collected 116 sweet potato accessions from International and National sources to develop varieties for Ethiopia; however, the accessions characterization and documentation were not exhaustively done to support the improvement program. Therefore, this study was conducted during 2012/2013 cropping season to characterize, evaluate, and documenting of physicochemical attributes of sweet potato accessions in Ethiopia. Augmented design consisting of 114 entries and two checks were used. Number of accessions recorded  significantly higher values  than the mean of the checks for reducing sugar, total sugar, and total starch content, pH, dry matter content, total soluble solid, specific gravity and peel content. CN-1752-14, CN-2056-8 and Tis-80/043-1 for reducing sugar, pH and total soluble solid, respectively, exhibited significantly highest values, while CN-1752-15 recorded the highest total sugar and total starch content. Korojo had significantly highest values for specific gravity, dry matter. Tis-82/0602 were exhibited that the lowest in peel content. study showed that presence of variations among accessions for traits studied and the possibility of selecting accessions for further testing for different breeding objectives. Keywords: Sweet potatoes, proximate analysis, reducing sugar, total starch content, dry matter.