Influence Of Mulching Materials On Yield And Economic Returns Of Potato (Solanum tuberosum l.) In Gisesero And Muhira Sites Of Rwanda

Abstract

A study on "Effect of different types of mulch on yield and its economics on potato in Musanze and Rubavu Districts of Rwanda" was conducted from 20^th February to 10^th July, 2022 with the main objective of investigating the influence of different mulches yield of Irish potato and to identify the effective mulching materials for potato producers recommendation. Water shortage, lack of irrigation facilities, high cost of weeding as well as high weed infestation were the problem found in the potato production at farm level. To find out the efficiency of different mulching materials, a field experiment was conducted in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with five treatments: Control (T1), Dead mulch made of stalk bean (T2),  live Mucuna pruriens(T3) Live Desmodium incanum(T4) and Live lablab purepureus (T5) replicated four times. The data on different physical growth and yield parameters were taken over agricultural season before and at harvesting. Data entry and analysis was done using MS- Excel and OPSTAT software. The ANOVA was performed followed by the Duncan’s multiple range test for separation of means into homogenous groups using the Least Significant Difference (LSD) at various levels of significance. From the experiment it was found that the highest tuber yield was obtained in stalk bean mulch for both Musanze and Rubavu sites,31.92 tha^-1 and 30.5 tha^-1  respectively, which was followed by live Desmodium incanum (27.31 tha^-1) for Musanze site and live Lablab purepureus (27.31 tha^-1) for Rubavu site, live Mucuna pruriens for both Musanze and Rubavu sites,21.63 tha^-1  and 19.96 tha^-1 respectively, live Lablab purepureus (18.28 tha^-1) at Musanze site and Desmodium incanum (18.13 tha^-1) at Rubavu site, and lowest tuber yield was obtained in control condition for both Musanze and Rubavu sites,15.59 tha^-1  and 15.88 tha^-1  respectively. In case of economics, the highest benefit cost ratio was found in bean stalk mulch (3.49) for Rubavu site and 3.57 for Musanze site. Thus, this practice is the most effective mulching material for the high production of potato in Musanze and Rubavu Districts of Rwanda.