The ‘Promotion of sustainable sweetpotato production and post-harvest management through farmer field schools in East Africa’ project began in May 2002 and was funded by the Crop Protection Programme for a period of three years and a total value of £101,468.

The project purpose was specifically to increase the returns from sweetpotato enterprise through enhancing East African smallholders’ capacity in sustainable production and post-harvest management. The project aimed to pull together the results of over six years of laboratory, on-station, and on-farm research on improved component technologies, and promote the knowledge to farmers through a process of experiential learning.

This collaborative project was led by Tanya Stathers of the Natural Resources Institute, for the International Potato Centre (CIP) following the resignation of the original leader Elske van de Fliert in 2002. The full time project assistant Sam Namanda was based in Soroti, Uganda and supported by Regina Kapinga of CIP Kampala. The other core team members were Godrick Khisa of the FAO Global IPM Facility in Kenya, and Robert Mwanga of the Ugandan National Agricultural Research Organisation.