Sweet potatoes help in crop breeding

In Uganda, the sweet potatoes are a major staple crop. Uganda produces the third largest amount of sweet potatoes in the world behind China and Nigeria. Sweet potatoes are used to feed the families, and their livestock as well as used as a source of income. Small scale agricultural operations use a large number of sweet potato varieties in their planting. These varieties are steadily being lost due to weevils, sweet potato virus disease and environmental factors. 

In an attempt to identify, collect, evaluate and mitigate the loss of important types. A study was carried out by the Sweet Potatoe Program of the National Crop Resources Research Institute (NCRRI) in Namulaong, Uganda. According to the study’s author, Robert O. M. Mwanga, these discoveries are just the beginning of much more intense research.“Further evaluation of the genotypes at phenotypic and molecular levels is needed to efficiently select genotypes that combine a number of useful traits for use as parents in hybridization schemes to produce improved cultivars for Uganda and Sub-Saharan Africa,” he says. Read more...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine from Perendale Publishers.