News and Views

Sweetpotatoes are a critical crop for North Carolina, and many places around the world. People in the U.S. may be familiar with the Covington sweetpotato, which Craig Yencho, a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Horticulture, developed with Kenneth Pecota, a Senior Research Scholar in the Department of Horticulture. Craig Yencho …

Sweetpotato seed systems, which produce and distribute vine cuttings that farmers plant, are vital for disseminating improved varieties and ensuring that farmers have access to sufficient quality planting material when they need it. The International Potato Center (CIP) and partners have worked to strengthen sweetpotato seed systems in sub-Saharan Africa as part …

As increasingly erratic weather, pest and disease expansion, and other trends threaten farmers’ ability to produce enough food for the growing population, crop breeders are working on ways to speed up and improve the development of more resilient, high-yielding varieties. The current COVID-19 pandemic only reinforces the urgency of developing …

Jeanne Mukasine hails from Gakenke district in the northern reaches of Rwanda, the country of a thousand hills. Mukasine wears many hats —farmer, mother and wife. She is also a successful agri-preneur. Jeanne Mukasine (left) on her farm with Kiddo Mtunda (a sweetpotato breeder from Tanzania, and Jean Ndirigwe (a …

SweetGAINS (Genetic Advances and Innovative Seed Systems) is a project aiming to modernize sweetpotato breeding operations, accelerate and expand the development and dissemination of nutrient rich, climate-resilient sweetpotato varieties to benefit millions of African families. Over the next three years, SweetGAINS, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will employ …

No-one wakes up saying ‘I crave vitamin A today’ Listen to podcast There is more to good nutrition than calories and protein. The realisation that you can be perfectly well fed, maybe even too well fed, and yet still malnourished, is relatively recent. It often goes by the name hidden …