Potato News from Africa

The potato value chain has been the main pain point for Kenyan farmers for decades now. After a bumper harvest, thousands of tonnes go to waste. And this is where Wedgehut Foods carved a niche.

It may be recalled how shocked Kenyans were when reports began filtering in the media last year January 2022 that the multinational food giant KFC has run out of ‘fries’ for customers following the non-delivery of potatoes from their overseas suppliers.

El obtentor de patatas y exportador de semillas holandés HZPC ha completado un ensayo de salinidad en Egipto con la cosecha organizada a finales de enero.

Solynta and PepsiCo’s Ethiopia-based Foods Unit, Senselet Food Processing PLC (Senselet), have launched a project to introduce hybrid true potato seeds (HTPS) to Ethiopia.

Elder Isaiah Buwah is growing potatoes for forty years in the Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. Having seen the impact from late blight first hand, he truly enjoyed the harvest of the first batch of - resistant - biotech potatoes.

For the first time, food and agriculture systems have taken center stage in the global climate negotiations. COP27 has advanced the global recognition of food and agriculture as both a climate culprit and solution.

The Zimbabwe Potato Micro-propagation Association (ZPMA) has spearheaded the resuscitation of seed potato production since this stalled around 2008. The current mandate is to substitute imported seed potato.

A capacity-building initiative that started in Kenya to fill gaps in the supply of high-quality early generation seed (EGS) is now spreading across Asia and many African countries

PepsiCo is finalising an investment proposal of approximately USD 40 million (ETB 2 billion) to expand its Senselet snacks business in Ethiopia, and is considering the possibility of further investments in the country.

South African seed potato producer RegenZ and European hybrid potato seed innovator Solynta announced a partnership to bring hybrid true potatoes to the South African farming community.

Richard Mbaria makes a point at his potato in Kapsita village of Nakuru County, Kenya. The farmer has increased his production per acre thanks to training by a CARP+ project implemented in the area by Egerton University.

Markies has already become the number one for potato chips in Kenya. Simultaneously Markies is also increasingly demanded by Kenya’s crisping industry. A good example is Norda Industries who favors our Markies variety for their potato crisps.

A community project that provides farmers with healthy seed potato, cultivated using innovative laboratory techniques is significantly increasing yields in Kenya, an agricultural expert says.

More than 3,000 small-holder potatoes farmers from Nakuru are set to benefit from a KES 127 million (USD 1 million) program aimed at enhancing potato production in the County.

With almost 10 billion people to feed by 2050 and food production threatened by declining resources, global food security faces an immense challenge that needs to be addressed.

Potato farmers have welcomed the government’s on-going trials on the use of agricultural biotechnology in producing a new Irish potato variety resistant to the devastating late blight disease.

The potato sector in Algeria is considered to be a strategic crop for the economic development, many levers have been put in place in recent years to increase yield levels , which have been quadrupled to 5 million tons.

In the midst of a sunlit room in Nnewi, south-east Nigeria, a woman measures out four parts of sweet potato puree – the colour of apricot – into a large basin containing six parts wheat flour.