The 8th annual Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI) meeting that brings together a variety of projects+ is almost here with us. The meeting will be held from 24^th through to 27^th September 2017 at the Ramada Resort in Dar-es-Salaam. This year, SPHI has a variety of contests that offered participants a chance to win an array of prizes, and we have an analysis of the contest status.

The best sweetpotato scientific paper award was an award for the best paper published between January 2016 and December 2016. The deadline to receive applications is July 30^th, 2017 and we have a winner! During the SPHI 2017 meeting, the winner will be announced and they will make a presentation on this paper. Read more on the contest here.

The what’s in a name contest was set to get participants’ creative juices moving. As part of its population development program, CIP in West Africa has been focused on developing sweetpotato varieties with little to no sugar. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI) in Ghana in collaboration with CIP plan to release low sugar varieties later this year. A marketing campaign to introduce this new sweetpotato type into the market needs also to have a slogan or key message to capture the main features of this new food product.  The contest required the new type to be submitted with a new slogan not exceeding 160 letters in total and the contest had a deadline of August 11^th 2017. A total of 11 entries were submitted and judging is ongoing. Read more on the contest here.

The SPHI photo contest gave a chance to participants to to tear through their hard drives and share amazing photographs for a chance to win $120 and make sweetpotato history! A total of 82 pictures were sent and analysis of each and judging is complete. We have our winners!.. and they will be presented with their awards during the SPHI meeting. Read more on the contest here.

The communication for change award, through a generous endowment from Dr. Jan W. Low, a recipient of the World Food Prize in 2016, recognizes the best sweetpotato communication product. This is the first year the prize will be awarded for the best communication product produced in 2016. The deadline  to receive applications is September the 6^th, 2017 and the winner will be announced during the SPHI meeting. Read more on the contest and send entries here.