Sweetpotato and potato are expanding faster than any other food crops in sub-Saharan Africa. There is growing investment in research to address bottlenecks in value chains concerning these two crops, and growing interest from the private sector in investing in them. This book addresses five major themes on sweetpotato and potato: policies for germplasm exchange, food security and trade in Africa; seed systems; breeding and disease management; post-harvest management, processing technologies and marketing systems; nutritional value and changing behaviours.

The potato has the potential to raise smallholder income and improve food security in Eastern Africa. While improving the quality of seed potatoes can contribute to increasing its productivity, most farmers largely rely on the seed potatoes they save themselves. Seed potato system interventions need to address the quality of specially multiplied and farm-saved seed potatoes simultaneously. This book shows that positive selectionthe selection of healthy looking mother plants for the production of seed potatoes by aware potato farmerscan contribute to improving seed potato quality and the quality of the subsequent harvest.