North Carolina is the nation’s largest sweetpotato grower, producing close to 40 percent of the country’s annual yield of 1.6 billion pounds of sweetpotatoes. Approximately 40,000 North Carolina acres are devoted to sweetpotatoes, and the crop is worth more than $85 million annually to the state’s growers. Clearly, sweetpotatoes are already an important North Carolina crop, but we’re working in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to provide the research and technology growers need to become more productive and make the crop more valuable. Our breeding program, for example, has produced Covington, the most widely grown sweetpotato variety in the state along with ornamental sweetpotatoes sold in garden centers. We also developed the technology used to store sweetpotatoes. And we’re working to develop industrial sweetpotatoes that can be used to produce ethanol. Please follow the links on this page and learn more about how the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is making a difference for North Carolina sweetpotato growers. (Pictured above: Sweetpotato researcher Ken Pecota harvesting sweetpotatos)

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Editor: Dave Caldwell CALS Communication Services Last Revised: 01/29/08