Molecular Soil Biology 2025, Vol.16, No.6, 306-313 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/msb 308 2.3 Description of irrigation regimes Irrigation regimes were divided into full irrigation, moderate deficit, and severe deficit. These levels were defined using percentages of field capacity (FC) or crop evapotranspiration (ET). The control group (CK) maintained the soil moisture at 65%~75% of the field capacity (FC) (in the 0-60 cm soil layer). When there is a mild water shortage, the soil moisture content drops to 55%~65% of FC. When there is moderate water shortage, soil moisture drops to 45%~55% of FC (Li et al., 2025). In the research on plastic film mulching and drip irrigation, crops have sufficient water for most of the time, and the amount of water is reduced only during the seedling stage or when tubers are forming. When moderate water deficiency treatment was carried out during the formation and swelling of tubers, the yield decreased by approximately 18.9%, with a loss of 28,633 kg/hm² (Pan et al., 2025). In an open-field drip irrigation experiment in Chile, the determination of irrigation volume mainly referred to the total effective water volume (TAW), water consumption coefficient (p), and available water volume (RAW). When the RAW consumption reaches 35%, the crops undergo adequate irrigation treatment (T1). Moderate deficiency treatment (with an irrigation volume of 75% of T1, that is, T3) reduced the irrigation water volume throughout the entire growing season by approximately 25%, equivalent to about 80 mm. Compared with full irrigation, the differences in commodity yield and quality under this treatment were not significant, but the water use efficiency increased by approximately 18% (Mora-Sanhueza et al., 2025). More severe deficit treatments, such as 50% and 30% of full irrigation (T4 and T5), caused clear reductions in leaf area, photosynthesis rate, and PSII quantum efficiency during tuber formation and flowering. Final yield and marketable rate were much lower than those under full irrigation and the 75% treatment. 3 Potato Varieties Evaluated The tested materials included main or widely used potato varieties. They covered different maturity groups and different uses, such as table potatoes and processing potatoes. This helped cover the whole growth period, from early to mid–late maturity, and different market needs. Field comparisons showed that varieties with high yield and a high share of marketable tubers gained more economic benefit when irrigation was improved. For example, in a trial with 21 varieties in eastern India, the yield of ‘Kufri Arun’ reached 35.52 t/ha, and ‘Kufri Pukhraj’ reached 33.54 t/ha. Both varieties had a high share of marketable tubers and high net income. The net income of ‘Kufri Arun’ was 2137.4 USD·ha-1, with a benefit–cost (B:C) ratio of 2.17 (Das et al., 2021). In the Ethiopian highlands, the total yield of ‘Belete’ was 32.8 t/ha, and marketable yield reached 29.1 t/ha. This was much higher than the local farmer variety, which produced only 13.8 t/ha (Tessema et al., 2020). 3.1 Selection criteria for varieties Variety selection mainly focused on commercial value. Key factors included planting area in the target region or similar environments, fit with market and processing needs, and economic return. In the western highlands of Cameroon, the improved variety ‘Cipira’ produced 7.78 t/ha. This was much higher than the local variety ‘Banso’ (4.0 t/ha) and several European varieties (0.72~3.33 t/ha). ‘Cipira’ also showed lower late blight incidence. For this reason, it was recommended to farmers under both rainfed and supplemental irrigation conditions (Tatah et al., 2023). The average weight of the tubers of early-maturing varieties is 55.9 g. The average weight of the tubers of the mid-maturing and late-maturing varieties was 85.6 g and 109.6 g respectively. The average weight of the tubers of the late-maturing variety "Rodeo" reaches 128.7 g. The total output of certain late-maturing varieties of commercial potatoes reached 41.69~43.21 t/ha (Yatsenko and Yatsenko, 2025). Under the arid climate conditions of Russia, Bakunov et al. (2025) conducted multi-year experiments on 50 varieties. Some varieties performed very well, with an average yield ranging from 32.0 to 40.9 t/ha. The yields of varieties such as "Krasnoyarsky ranniy", "Alka" and "Vostorg" are relatively stable. The growth rate of early-maturing varieties is relatively fast. The growth of the above-ground parts is particularly obvious 30 to 40 days and 50 to 60 days after emergence. In early varieties, about 52% of yield was seed tubers. In mid- and late-maturing groups, food tubers made up 63% and 60% of yield. This shows that different maturity groups play different roles in the supply chain.
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