Avocado (Persea americana Mill.) is an important horticultural crop and proved to be a very profitable commercial crop for both local consumption and export. The physical characteristics of fruits are an important factor to determine the quality of fruit produced. On the other hand, estimation of fruit volume is time-consuming and impractical under field conditions. Thus, this study was conducted to devise cultivar-specific and generalized allometric models to analytically and non-destructively determine avocado fruit volume of five wildly distributed avocado cultivars. A significant relationship (P ≤ 0.01) was found between fruit diameter, length, and volume of each cultivar. Our best models (VM2 –for cultivar specific, and VM7-generalized model) has passed all the rigorous cross-validation and performance statistics tests and explained 94%, 92%, 87%, 93%, 94% and 93% of the variations in fruit volume of Ettinger, Fuerte, Hass, Nabal, Reed, and Multiple cultivars, respectively. Our finding revealed that in situations where measurements of volume would be inconvenient, or time-consuming, a reliable volume and yield estimation can be obtained using site- and cultivar-specific allometric equations. Allometric models could also play a significant role in improving data availability on avocado fruit physical appearance which is critical to assess the quality and taste of fresh products influencing the purchase decision of customers. Moreover, such information can also be used as a ripeness index to predict optimum harvest time important for planned marketing. More importantly, the models might assist horticulturists, agronomists, and physiologists to conduct further study on avocado production and productivity through agroforestry landuse system across Ethiopia.
Tag: avocado
Adaptation and growth performance of five avocado cultivars in Ethiopia
Ethiopia has diverse agroecology with vast areas, suitable for growing subtropical and tropical fruits. Despite this potential, the avocado industry in Ethiopia is still in its infancy. This study assessed the adaptation of five avocado cultivars: Ettinger, Fuerte, Hass, Nabal, and Reed, survival rate, growth performances, fruit yield, and household contributions in Lemo district Ethiopia. The results revealed that there were significant differences in tree growth performance and yield among avocado cultivars (P < 0.05). The highest vegetative growth performance was demonstrated by Nabal, Fuerte, Ettinger, and Hass, while Reed was the lowest. In 2020, Nabal had the highest fruit yield (96 kg tree1), followed by Hass (47 kg tree1), while Fuerte had a relatively low fruit yield (39.43 kg tree1). Due to its larger fruit size, the Nabal was used for sale, while the Hass cultivar, which has a sweet taste, was mainly used for home consumption. The findings demonstrated that significant difference in management practices applied by male and female farmers. Overall, the study concluded that the Nabal, Hass, and Ettinger cultivars had a great potential for fruit production, which could improve smallholder farmers livelihood. As a result, it is necessary to scale up these avocado cultivars in the midland agroecological zone of the country.