Abstract: In Salem district of Tamil Nadu, tomato is cultivated in an area of 526ha in Panamarathupatti block. The major villages cultivating tomato are Panamarathupatti, Kammalapatti, Thumbalpatti, Mallur, Nalikkalpatti etc., Most of the farmers are cultivating private tomato hybrids with lesser productivity and yield loss due to diseases like leaf curl, early and late blight and bacterial wilt was upto 30 %. Hence it is 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 as an on farm trial in five different locations of Panamarathupatti block of Salem district during Kharif season of 2019 in tomato using hybrids IIHR hybrid Arka Vishesh and TNAU Tomato Hybrid CO 4 with Sivam private hybrid as check hybrid. TNAU Tomato Hybrid CO 4 recorded an average yield of 95 t/ha and Arka Vishesh recorded an average yield of around 87 t/ha. The private hybrid Sivam recorded an yield of 62 t/ha. TNAU Tomato Hybrid CO 4 recorded more average number of fruits per cluster (5-6) and higher fruit yield per plant (2.5 to 2.75kg) when compared to Arka Vishesh with average number of fruits per cluster (4-5) and higher fruit yield per plant (2.25 to 2.50kg). The seed cost of the private variety grown by the farmer is 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 ). But the market preference for COTH4 is comparatively higher due to the large sized fruits with green shoulder at breaker stage with more acidity (0.7%) which enhances the consumer preference in the market. In general the consumers prefer COTH4 hybrid rather than Arka Vishesh hybrid and hence marketability is also comparatively easier and better in TNAU Tomato Hybrid CO 4.

Keywords—Tomato, Solanum lycopersicum L., hybrids, performance, on farm trial

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2021.8881