Growing sweet potato commercially

A versatile, nutritious and tasty vegetable, sweet potato is the third most important crop in seven sub-Saharan African countries. The young shoots and leaves are sometimes eaten as greens.

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Although very popular in many countries, the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is an underrated vegetable in South Africa. In the US South, its popularity supersedes that of the potato. There they refer to the sweet potato simply as ‘potato’, while the common potato is called ‘white potato’, distinguishing it from its yellow-fleshed cousin.

Although they are both share the name ‘potato’, these two vegetables are very different and should be marketed to consumers as such. One marked difference is that the leaves of the sweet potato plant are edible; they are prepared in the same way as spinach.

China currently produces more than 60% of the world’s sweet potato crop, followed by Malawi. I. batatas is a tuberous-rooted perennial of the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae), which is a weed in Africa. (The edible part is a storage root, rather than a tuber, which is a swollen underground stem. Nonetheless, sweet potatoes are commonly referred to as tubers.) The flowers of sweet potato resemble those of morning glory.

The sweet potato is a healthy vegetable, being rich in beta-carotene, manganese, vitamin B5 and vitamin B6, amongst other nutrients. It can also be used in a variety of dishes. These attributes help to create strong demand, making sweet potato viable for commercial production.

Because it requires fewer inputs and less labour than other staple crops, it is also an ideal crop for small-scale farmers.

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