This is the second year of the project, “Delivering and Disseminating Biofortified Crops in Uganda,” (BIOFORT Uganda). BIOFORT Uganda is a 5 year project with annual contracts to partners. The project is implemented by five partners, the International Potato Center (CIP), HarvestPlus, Makerere University, Department of Agricultural Production, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (MAK), the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), and a private company, BioCrops Uganda Limited.

During the first year of the project, CIP supplied 100 clean in vitro plantlets of each of four orange sweetpotato (OSP) varieties, Ejumula, Kabode (NASPOT 10 O) and Vita (NASPOT 9 O) to Makerere University Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory at Kabanyolo (MAK) for multiplication. CIP also supplied virus indexed OSP mini-cuttings of Kakamega, Kabode, Ejumula and Vita to BioCrops Uganda Ltd for multiplication in the screen house. By November of last year, MAK had multiplied 6,879 plantlets while BioCrops had 18,500 vines ready for delivery. CIP in collaboration with NaCRRI conducted on-farm trials in the districts of Kabale, Isingiro, Rakai, Buyende and Oyam, with OSP clones, Kabode, NASPOT7/2006/1185, SPK0042006/1136, and NASPOT7/2006/292. CIP also set up post-harvest trials, i. e. curing and storage with one farmer in each of the districts of Rakai, Masaka and Mukono. As a result, NaCRRI is preparing to officially release OSP clones SPK0042006/1136 and NASPOT7/2006/292 which have performed well during the on-farm trials. The second year of the project is a continuation of year 1 activities. This is the first quarterly report of the second year of the project with different component objectives.