According to Craig Yencho’s presentation, if yield was improved in the sweetpotato growing areas, then the SPHI goal of 10 million by 2020 could be very realistic. Yencho presented the development of sweetpotato production in USA and Africa, highlighted the ongoing work to improve production and the challenges that still have to be addressed. He highlighted the focus areas, goals and progress in breeding work in sub-Saharan Africa and introduced the Genomic Tools for Sweetpotato Improvement Project, which is an ambitious project to sequence sweetpotato and develop modern breeding tools for the food crop.