Time of harvesting is one of the factors that influence crop yield and quality of produce from the crop. The actual time of harvesting cassava varies according to varieties. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effect of time of harvesting some pro-vitamin A cassava genotypes in storage root and garri yield and sensory qualities of garri produced from the cassava genotypes. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD), replicated three times in a 10 x 3 factorial arrangement. The factor A treatments were ten Pro-vitamin A cassava genotypes while factor B was time of harvesting The yield and sensory attributes of garri generated through panelist were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Result indicated significant difference (p<0.05) in storage root yields, dry matter accumulation and sensory attributes. NR07/0240 produced the highest storage root yield of 34.41 and 34.12 t/ha at 8months harvesting. It also had the significant storage root yield of 34.48 and 34.18 t/ha at 10 MAP in both cropping seasons while the TMS 01/1412 had the highest yield at 12 MAP with storage root yield of 35.14 and 35.71t/ha.. NR 07/0240 had the highest garri yield (11.65 and 11.25 t/ha) at 8 MAP and (11.78 and 11.60) at 10 MAP. NR07/0246 was best in appearance at 8 months while NR07/0240 v was best at 10 and 12 months harvesting. NR07/0240 was best in sipping and dough quality in all the harvesting treatments. The study established that NR07/0240 had higher storage and garri yield at 8MAP while TMS 01/1412 was12MAP. Farmers and processors were suggested to adopt NR07/0240, NR07/0246 and TMS01/1412 which showed superiority in storage root and garri yield as well as in garri sensory attributes.
Keywords: cassava, garri, genotypes and sensory attributes