Evaluation of tomato hybrids in salem district of Tamil Nadu

Tomato is cultivated in an area of 3177 ha in Salem district of Tamil Nadu. The major villages cultivating tomato are Panamarathupatti, Kammalapatti, Thumbalpatti, Mallur and Nalikkalpatti. Most of the farmers are cultivating private tomato hybrids with lesser productivity and more yield loss (up to 30%) due to diseases like leaf curl, early and late blight and bacterial wilt. Hence, it was proposed to conduct an on farm trial to assess the per se performance of tomato hybrids with high yield and multiple disease resistance like TNAU Tomato Hybrid CO4 and Arka Vishesh. A field experiment was conducted at five different locations of Panamarathupatti block of Salem district during Kharif 2019 using hybrids IIHR hybrid Arka Vishesh and TNAU Tomato Hybrid CO 4 with Sivam hybrid as control. TNAU Tomato Hybrid CO 4 recorded an average yield of 95 t/ha and Arka Vishesh around 87 t/ha. The private hybrid Sivam recorded a yield of only 62 t/ha. TNAU Tomato Hybrid CO 4 recorded more average number of fruits per cluster (5.5) and higher fruit yield per plant (2.5 kg) as compared to Arka Vishesh with average number of fruits per cluster (4.5) and higher fruit yield per plant (2.25 kg). The seed cost of the private variety grown by the farmer was higher and the hybrids such as TNAU CO4 and IIHR hybrid Arka Vishesh performed better with regard to higher cost benefit ratio (BCR for TNAU Tomato Hybrid CO 4 is 1:3.81 and for Arka Vishesh 1:3.41).The market preference for TNAU Tomato Hybrid CO 4 was comparatively higher due to the large sized fruits with more acidity (0.7%) which enhances the consumer preference in the market.