Sustainable seed systems for vegetatively or clonally propagated crops such as sweetpotato fulfill a number of critical roles: The timely provision of planting material of appropriate quality for smallholders, The efficient dissemination of new improved varieties from breeding programs, The provision of replacement planting material following natural disasters or in …

Tissue culture allows the rapid clonal propagation of a large number of plantlets over a short period, as well as the maintenance of germplasm under controlled conditions in small spaces and with reduced labor requirements. This document describes the advantages, methodologies and materials used for tissue culture at the International …

Vine, tuber and whole plant silages from five cultivars of sweet potato (Hapur local, Indonesia Boger (IB) 97-6/7, IB 12/24, IB 12/7 and CIP SWA-4) were investigated for nitrogen content, in vitro digestibility and metabolizable energy content and rate and extent of in vitro gas production using fresh pig faecal …

Five cultivars of sweet potato (Hapur local, Indonesia Boger (IB) 97-6/7, IB 12/24, IB 12/7 and CIP SWA-4) were grown at ICRISAT, India, on red soil with supplementary irrigation. Agronomical observations were carried during the rainy and post rainy season 2005/2006. Season had a significant effect on biomass yield. Across …

In contrast to Asia, malnutrition among young children is on the rise in Sub-Saharan Africa. A key millennium development goal (MDG) called for the reduction of underweight prevalence by 50% by the year 2015. Overall, in Africa, prevalence is expected to increase from 24% in 1990 to 27% in 2015. …

In Indonesia, sweetpotato is considered an important food crop. However, its total harvested area and productivity indicate that development of the crop is relatively stagnant or declining. Research priority given to sweetpotato is lower than rice and other food crops. In Indonesia, government research institutions and universities carry out research …

Overall Challenge: Yields of sweetpotatoes are low in Africa and improved crop management will be critical to increases in productivity and yet there is virtually a research vacuum on integrated crop management (ICM) and most farmers have few incentives to intensify crop management. So the question is: how can quality …

The series of theme papers presented in this working paper were prepared in preparation for a Sweetpotato Challenge Workshop held in July 2008 in Addis Ababa. This workshop brought together experts in the areas of agriculture, nutrition, health, animal feed and marketing from all parts of SSA to engage and …

The taxonomy of Ipomoea section Batatas is summarized with the conclusion that the alliance is composed of twelve named species, two named hybrids and one unnamed hybrid. An interpretation of evolution within the section is presented by using data from morphology, ecology, cytology, hybrids, and cluster analyses. Genetic diversity is …