Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is one of the most important crops in the tropics. There is no specific variety of cassava recommended for the cultivation in the Karaikal region. But there is a huge demand for cassava for culinary purpose. Hence, it is main challenge to identify two or three suitable varieties for coastal region of Karaikal. With this background a field experiment was carried out in the Department of Horticulture, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture and Research Institute, Karaikal, U.T. of Puducherry to assess the per se performance of 33 genotypes of cassava for growth and yield.The experiment was laid out in a Randomised Block Design with three replications. Among the 33 genotypes, CO 3 was found to be the shortest with a plant height of 120.80 cm, while the tallest genotype was Sree Vishakam with 290.30 cm. Sree Jaya produced highest number of leaves plant-1 (213.50). The highest number of tubers plant-1 and individual tuber weight recorded in CO 3 (1

Cassava, per se performance, growth, tuber yield.

Analysis of variance revealed the presence of significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters. In the present investigation based on the per se performance of 33 genotypes, CO 3 recorded the highest tuber yield plant-1 and ha-1 (2.48 kg and 44.09 t ha-1, respectively) followed by Sree Rekha (2.43 kg and 43.20 t ha-1, respectively) and Sree Prabha (2.32 kg and 41.24 t ha-1, respectively). These genotypes also significantly recorded higher mean performance in other growth and yield contributing traits viz., number of leaves plant-1, number of tubers plant-1, individual tuber weight, dry matter content of the tubers, tuber length and tuber girth. These productive traits would have significantly contributed to the tuber yield plant-1. By popularization of these varieties there is a good scope for expansion of cassava varieties area through Department of Agriculture by Minikit or True Cassava Miniset Programme.

Kanthaswamy, V., George, J. A. and Venkadeswaran, E. (2021). Studies on Evaluation of Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) Genotypes for the Coastal Region of Karaikal. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 13(2): 420-425.