Technical Report. Rapid market assessment: viable sweetpotato technologies in Africa-Tanzania.

This report is based on a rapid assessment study conducted in 14 markets in the intervention areas of the Viable Sweetpotato Technologies in Africa (VISTA) Tanzania project. We would like to thank the male and female traders, consumers and local government partners in Tanzania who participated in the study. We believe that this report captures their voices, interests and hopes and we hope that the findings will be a significant contribution in improving sweetpotato interventions in not only Tanzania but also other parts of Africa where the VISTA project is being implemented

Assessment of farmers’ willingness to pay for quality seed using dynamic auctions: The case of smallholder potato growers in Tanzania.

Irish potato is an important income and food security crop in many sub-Sahara Africa countries (SSA). However, the neglect of the potato Irish potato industry and failure of privatization to spur investment in seed potato production stifled the industry. Hence farmers have been forced to recycle seed, resulting in quality degradation and, in some cases resulting in up to 66-75% yield, and hence income, declines. The recent global food price swings has led to renewed interest in developing potato subsector in most producing SSA countries. One intervention by SSA governments has been in trying break the quality seed bottleneck by investing in generation of quality seed. Such investment involve construction of state of the art seed production labs to clean degraded seed and evaluate imported seed, on-station and on-farm testing, and promotion smallholder seed production. This study uses data collected from Tanzania to examine farmers’ willingness to pay such seed. Since 2009, Tanzania government has heavily invested in developing seed potato industry jointly with international and national research organization through donor support

Latent bacterial wilt and viral infection burden in the seed potato system in Ethiopia: Policy implications for seed potato

Executive Summary • The prevalence of infection with Ralstonia solanacearum (Rs) and viruses in seed potato systems is alarming, and continues to grow. • There is inadequate implementation of internal seed quality control and external quality assurance for early generation seed production (EGS). EGS materials being bulked were found to be infected by degenerative diseases, but there was limited awareness by seed producers of disease levels. • Most seed testing laboratories do not handle seed potato certification and those that do depend on visual assessment which is inadequate in ensuring seed health and increases the risk of spreading latent infections. • Most seed testing laboratories in Ethiopia suffer infrastructural, logistical, and human resource challenges that jeopardizes effective and efficient seed potato certification

Micro and meso-level issues affecting potato production and marketing in the tropical highlands of Sub-Saharan Africa: The known and the unknowns

This study uses ecological system theory to examine the micro and meso level factors that affect and are affected potato production in Sub-Sahara Africa. It focuses on gender, environmental factors, food security. The data and information used were collected using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The study finds that gender use within the households is changing. It also finds that dwindling land sizes and soil fertility are encouraging the migration potato plots to fragile margins while increased pest and disease pressure is encouraging greater reliance on pesticide -- resulting into increased incidences of pesticide poisoning, all of which have definite effects on the environment and sustainability of potato production and agriculture in general. It concludes that farm household (micro-level) decisions on potato production are driving and being driven by the environmental/ physical (meso) level ecology. The study discusses the implications of its findings for policy and sustainability of agricultur