Share your research and experience, ask and answer questions, meet your peers.

Sweetpotato research at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Abstracts. Volume 2

Sweetpotato, Ipomoea batatas is a verstatile root crop grown in all parts of tropical and subtropical world. It is valued for its short growing period of 90 to 120 days, high nutritional content and its sweetness. Despite these values, it has not gained popularity in Ghana due to minimal integration into the average Ghanaian diet. Limited product diversity coupled with little awareness of its potential benefits and physical properties could account for its low consumption in Ghana. These notwithstanding, the unavailability of ready market and storage limitations that cultivators, mostly in northern Ghana have to grapple with, possess great challenges. It is against this background that several studies have been conducted in the Food Science & Technology and Biochemistry & Biotechnology Departments to investigate the nutritional qualities, physicochemical properties as well as the potential of product diversities from different varieties of sweetpotato. Studies on sweetpotato leaves and root tubers have yielded good results though further studies are required to consolidate some findings. This will enhance broad utilization of sweetpotatoes which will be of economical advantage to the country, while encouraging many farmers to go into its cultivation