News on Potato Varieties and Seed from Africa

Agrico PSA is proud to communicate another impressive milestone reached: now over 50,000 Kenyan potato farmers are digitally partnering via their Facebook page! PSA’s Facebook page has evolved into a platform where potato knowledge is shared.

Potato farmers in Kabale District, Uganda are elated following the commissioning of Muhingi Products Factory which is hoped to create added value addition for both sweet potato and Irish potato produce.

Sources revealed to Al-Mal that 131 thousand tons of potato seeds arrived from European facilities approved for import from last October until early January, for 76 approved varieties.

Droughts have long posed a threat to farmers in southern Africa, and models predict they will become more frequent, unpredictable, and intense as global warming continues.

The Savannah Agriculture Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research [CSIR – SARI] has introduced new varieties of the ‘Frafra’ potato crop to farmers in the Talensi and Nabdam districts of the Upper East Region.

Mustapha Baba Shehuri, minister of state for agriculture and rural development, says Nigeria will be among the world’s top three potato producing countries by 2025.

The triadic comparisons of technologies – or tricot – approach is being used in a citizen-science project funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) to identify and scale up best cassava and potato varieties in Rwanda.

Potato cultivation has seen tremendous success in Sudan when productivity in some areas reached 28 tons an acre, like in the Alarqam Project of Western Omdurman here. The Meroe Dam Project (in Northern Sudan) has produced 20 tons per acre.

As a food security crop and cash crop, potato is a source of income for farmers, traders and sellers. In Kenya alone, potato creates employment for 2.5 million people along the value chain amounting to an estimated annual worth of USD 480 million.

Kenya has applied for a Sh656 million grant from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to boost research on potato seed production and cut reliance on imports.

Imagine being a potato farmer in Ethiopia, Kenya, or Nigeria. On a small piece of land, which you depend on for food and income, you have spent months planting, weeding, and watering.

Viazi (potatoes in Kiswahili) are grown in Kenya since the 19th century. The production and consumption of the potato have grown steadily since.

A Rwandan entrepreneur is pioneering the use of innovative farming technology that, he believes, is set to play a major role in feeding the growing population in his country, amid increasing pressure on arable land.

The Wageningen Research Foundation (WR), being subsidised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality in the context of the Policy Support 'Sustainable agricultural development in a food system approach' published a study on the potato value chain in Morocco.

A first pilot using True Potato Seed (TPS) in Angonia District, Tete province in Mozambique, conducted by Solidaridad and Solynta shows great potential to drastically improve and innovate potato production in Mozambique.

The government of Zimbabwe, in conjunction with Kutsaga Research Station has embarked on a seed potato multiplication programme from mini-tuber to commercial seed potato.

The partnership targets to introduce new technologies and train smallholder farmers on how to improve potato yields through the use of quality seeds, resilient varieties, disease management and post-harvest management.

Addressing seed shortages for potato is a perennial challenge in many potato-producing countries. Potato seed systems rely on several successive generations of bulking seed tubers to produce commercial seed.