Potato and sweetpotato are the third and seventh most important food crops globally. Yet most farmers in developing countries produce a fraction of what they could per hectare under optimal conditions, in large part because they plant seed infected with yield-reducing pests and diseases. To remedy this, the International Potato Center (CIP) develops resilient, high yielding varieties and promotes innovations to expand production of quality planting material.
In Kenya, where more than 800,000 farmers grow potato and 3.8 million people along the value chain benefit from the crop, average yields of just 6-10 tons per hectare are holding farmers back.