Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) undertakes two critical functions in the sweetpotato seed system: as the regional centre of excellence for germplasm management    and exchange, in collaboration with CIP, it supports clean-up and virus indexing of breeder materials for national sweetpotato breeding and seed programmes across sub-Saharan Africa. Secondly, it multiplies pathogen tested pre-basic seed for sale within Kenya. 

Top on the agenda of the 10th consultation of the Seed Systems and Crop Management Community of Practice (CoP), in November 2018, was assessing the effectiveness of partner National Research Institutions' (NARIs) marketing strategies -for early generation sweetpotato seed.

How village savings and loans groups, orange fleshed sweetpotato and the Triple-S innovation are empowering women in Northern Ghana. ‘For me, growing sweetpotato is much easier than other crops. I use few inputs and have little maintenance and I still get a good yield’ said Ernestine Gbang, a women’s group …

“Seven to 10 years ago, sweetpotato was known as ‘the father of children’ because it was available throughout the year. Because the soil had moisture content during the dry season, we were able to conserve our vines by covering them with mulch,” began Merid Mengesha, an elder in Yayike village …

‘Next season I will fill my farm, and my father’s farm, with sweetpotato’ says Bezabih Hamamo, a champion Triple S (Storing in Sand and Sprouting) farmer in the Jara Dado Kebele in Hawassa Zuria.  Hawassa Zuria is in southern Ethiopia, approximately 40 km from Hawassa town, and it is in …