Sweet Potato Research & Extension
Sweet potatoes are a popular, nutritious root vegetable. The U.S. is a major producer and top exporter of sweet potatoes. In 2024, over 148,000 acres of sweet potatoes were harvested in the U.S. The value of the crop totaled $615 million.
Sweet potato growers faces many challenges, including labor shortages, extreme weather, poor soil, weeds, pests, and diseases. To improve sweet potato grower profitability and ensure stable supplies of high-quality sweet potatoes for consumers, researchers and Extension professionals are working together to tackle all aspects of sweet potato production.
Hatch Multistate Projects Improving Sweet Potato Production
Since 1939, the Sweet Potato Collaborators Conference has been a forum for generating and sharing information about sweet potato production and post-harvest practices. The group coordinates annual regional trials of promising sweet potato varieties and facilitates the commercial release of new varieties. Group members also investigate and share best practices for pest and disease management, mechanization, and marketing. To support the next generation of sweet potato scientists and growers, group members provide hands-on training in research, teaching, and Extension.
A multistate team coordinates the preservation and distribution of sweet potato germplasm, genetic material such as plant tissue cultures. This germplasm is key to research and crop improvement and has led to many of today's sweet potato varieties. Recently, sweet potato germplasm was evaluated for resistance to black rot (Louisiana State University) and for adaptation to tropical environments (University of Guam).
Researchers are evaluating current commercial sweet potato varieties for resistance to emerging plant-parasitic nematodes (microscopic worms that damage plants). Screening existing varieties is a first step to breeding more resistance sweet potato varieties.
Field trials in Hawaii, Alabama, and North Carolina showed that sweet potato farmers can use cover crops to suppress plant-parasitic nematodes, enhance soil health, and improve sweet potato yields.
Scientists are working together to develop sensor and imaging systems for sweet potatoes and other underground crops so scientists and growers can rapidly and accurately assess plant growth, stress responses, and resource use efficiency.
Researchers at are working together to develop datasets, algorithms, and robotic machine vision systems that can be used to automate sweet potato grading and sorting during harvest and processing (Michigan State University, Mississippi State University, North Carolina State University, University of Illinois, and Louisiana State University). These systems will help overcome labor shortages when there are not enough farm workers to harvest, sort, and grade sweet potatoes by hand.
Researchers at the University of Hawaii screened sweet potatoes for various species of root-knot nematodes, helping prevent introduction of these pests at a critical transit point between Asia and the U.S. mainland.
Studies at the University of Connecticut, University of Illinois, Pennsylvania State University, and Oklahoma State University explored how carotenoids (the natural orange pigments in sweet potatoes) affect immune response and could help protect against obesity, cancer, heart disease, nonalcoholic fatty, liver disease, bowel disease, and chronic inflammation associated with Type 2 diabetes.
W4002: Nutrient Bioavailability
