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NC State Researchers Continue Improving Sweetpotatoes for Africa

sweetpotato

The Sweet-APPS team sitting at a table

Nov 22, 2022

Sweet-APPS Yielding Sweet Success

From deploying innovative sensors to creating productive relationships with stakeholders, the Sweetpotato Analytics for Produce Provenance and Scanning project has had a rewarding first two years. 
Modesta Abugu in a sweetpotato field

Oct 14, 2022

Modesta Abugu: Improving Sweetpotato Flavor for Nutrition Security

Ph.D. student Modesta Abugu is researching flavor compounds in sweetpotatoes with a goal of increasing consumption and improving global nutrition security. 
someone holding sweetpotatoes

Apr 12, 2022

CALS Economist Joins the Fight to Curb the Effects of Invasive Nematode on Sweetpotatoes

Daniel Tregeagle will conduct an economic analysis to determine the costs of adopting new growing methods to stop the spread of the guava root-knot nematode. 
sweet potato farmer

Mar 2, 2022

“Sweet” Research at National Sweetpotato Collaborators Group Meeting

North Carolina’s sweetpotato production has surpassed every other state in the United States for the past 50 years despite increasing challenges like weather events, herbicide-resistant weeds and labor shortages. 
Craig Yencho gives a presentation at a recent field day

Oct 29, 2021

Protecting Our State’s New Rural Cash Crop

The true profit potential of sweetpotatoes has been held back by an aggressive and invasive pest. NC State’s Craig Yencho will lead a $5 million grant-funded project to fight it. 
A group photo of nine individuals, African and Caucasian in front of a store front in Kenya.

Jan 25, 2021

Small Business Administration Honors NC State Spinoff SinnovaTek

A growing Raleigh-based company is helping children in sub-Saharan Africa, where vitamin A deficiency is widespread. 
Hand slicing a sweetpotato

Oct 27, 2020

Sweet Success With Sweetpotatoes

Sweetpotatoes are North Carolina's state vegetable, and they're not just for Thanksgiving anymore. Find out how North Carolina growers have positioned our state as the leader when it comes to production of this increasingly in-demand crop. 
Three different varieties of sweetpotatoes with different skin colors.

Jul 10, 2020

‘Map’ of Sweetpotato Genome to Improve Breeding Efforts

NC State scientists recently published a scientific paper that mapped the genetic locations of economically important traits in sweetpotatoes such as higher yield and disease resistance. Their genetic map may lead to breeding better sweetpotatoes. 
A bunch of sweetpotatoes

May 27, 2020

Big Data for Better Sweetpotatoes

An interdisciplinary team led by Cranos Williams is setting out on a three-year project to use artificial intelligence to make sweetpotatoes even more profitable. The team will image hundreds of thousands of sweetpotatoes to increase the percentage of sweetpotatoes grown that are USDA grade 1. 
Craig Yencho and Bernard Yada ’14, Ph.D., survey sweetpotato vines at a research farm outside Kampala, Uganda.

May 4, 2020

NC State Researchers Continue Improving Sweetpotatoes for Africa

Craig Yencho and his team recently received part of a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue their work improving sweetpotatoes in Sub-Saharan Africa. The genomic tools developed through the three-year, $15-million-dollar grant will also improve sweetpotato breeding for North Carolina farmers.