Evaluation of Tomato ( Lycopersicon e sculentum Mill . ) Genotypes for Yield and Yield Components

Owing to the limited availability of improved cultivars that are suitable for different purposes, the yield of tomato in Ethiopia is far below the world’s average. The world’s average was 34.84 tones/ha and the average productivity of Ethiopian was 7.57 tones/ha (FAO 2009). Hence, identification of improved tomato varieties that are adaptable, high yielding and disease resistant are necessary. Therefore, an experiment was conducted at Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (JUCAVM) to evaluate nine tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) varieties for their fruit yield using a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications under field conditions. Data were collected on growth parameters and yield components, including plant height, primary branch, number of flowers and fruit per cluster, number of fruit clusters per plant, days to first harvest, fruit set percentage, polar and equatorial diameter, number and yield of fruit per plant, marketable, unmarketable and total fruit yield per hectare. The study indicated that yield per plant was higher for ‘H-1350’, ‘Eshet’, ‘Metadel’, ‘Marglobe’ and ‘Moneymaker’ than the rest of the varieties. Total yield was highest for ‘H-1350’, ‘Eshet’, ‘Metadel’, ‘Marglobe’ and ‘Moneymaker’ whereas it was lowest for ‘Fetan’, ‘Miya’ and ‘Jimma local’. Considering yield and yield components, variety ‘H-1350’ was found to be better than the rest of the varieties, while ‘Eshet’, ‘Marglobe’ and ‘Jimma local’ were the poorest performers for almost all parameters. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________