Sweetpotato is one of the most widely grown root crops in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are real opportunities to boost the productivity and utilization of sweetpotato, and investing in this will directly benefit the poor through improving their incomes and nutritional status.

Sweetpotato did not originate in Africa, it was domesticated at least 5,000 years ago in tropical America. Central America is believed to be the centre of origin of sweetpotato, with it being brought to Africa by Portuguese traders in the 16th Century. It was probably introduced on both the east and west coasts of Africa (possibly Angola and Mozambique), and then spread inland.

Sweetpotato has the potential to produce remarkably high yields if given the right growing conditions. Sweetpotato can also yield more reliably under unfavourable conditions than many other crops. There is ongoing work across the SSA, addressing the best environmental factors that influence sweetpotato production

Many sweetpotato plants in Sub-Saharan Africa are infested with virus diseases. Use of clean healthy planting materials could bring instant yield gains of 30-60%. In addition, sweetpotato weevil is a major source of economic loss in developing countries.

FIFAMANOR BP-198 ANTSIRABE-110 MADAGASCAR E-mail: it.fifamanor@moov.mg Phone : +261 20 44 991 39 Web site : www.fifamanor.com

The main constraints that the project seeks to address are: – the lack of financing even so from the government  – the control of bacterial wilt of potato – the difficulty of the procedures recommended by the government

The objective of FIFAMANOR is to contribute to the improvement of the livelihoods of farmers by promoting the following: – Roots and tubers crops – Wheat and triticals – Forages (grass) crops – Milk production (animal feeding, breeding improvement of dairy cattle, etc.)

The working area of FIFAMANOR is the Vakinankaratra region which is located in the central highland of Madagascar. However, FIFAMANOR has the mandate to work in any other part of Madagascar, depending on availability of funding.

We continue to strengthen sweetpotato breeding in Africa to ensure continuous production of high yielding, disease-resistant, nutritious varieties adapted to local agro-climatic conditions and the preferred trait combination for producers, processors and consumers.