News on Potato Varieties and Seed from Africa

As of 2024, the global refugee population has surged to 43.4 million, a significant increase from 41 million in 2010! Uganda, now hosting over 1.74 million refugees, has emerged as Africa’s largest and the world’s fifth-largest refugee host nation.

Solynta's potato varieties with high resistances against Late Blight provide Kenyan farmers with good yields, as demonstrated in a comparative field test during an extensive spray/no spray trial in Limuru, Kenya.

The variety release committee of the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) has recently announced that three of Solynta’s hybrid true potato varieties have been approved for distribution in Kenya.

Bayer and Solynta have reached an agreement to collaborate on the commercialization and distribution of true potato seeds in Kenya and India.

The lack of quality seed for improved varieties has been attributed to the limited capacity of seed multipliers to produce enough to meet farmer’s demands.

The outbreak of the Red Sea crisis has taken its toll on many Egyptian export campaigns - citrus fruits being the first casualty - but it seems that the potato export campaign is holding up well. 

To combat hunger and malnutrition, the World Food Program (WFP) and the International Potato Center (CIP) have extended their partnership for a further four years with a new memorandum of understanding (MOU)

By signing the distribution agreement with Fraxen Consult Ltd, Agrico seed potatoes will be exported to small-scale farmers in Tanzania later this year.

The Genetically Modified (GM) Potato Project ongoing in Nigeria has concluded its first-year multi-locational confined trial in three locations

Potato farming in Namibia is an important occupation for the country’s food security and economic development.

Morocco, as one of the leading global suppliers of fruits and vegetables, is increasing its exports of fruit and vegetable products, but this is not the case for the Moroccan fresh potato exports.

Seven years ago, Chris and Ashley Gasperi planted four acres of potatoes on their idle land in Kenya.

The International Potato Center (CIP) has collaborated with Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) to release the KC Sweet Purple variety of sweet potato in an effort to tackle ongoing climate challenges facing farmers in Kenya.

Tanzania and the Netherlands have agreed to collaborate on developing a joint roadmap for the thriving seed potato ecosystem.

Egypt continues to hold the position of the second biggest supplier of sweet potatoes to the Dutch market and is increasing its export of sweet potatoes to the Netherlands year after year.

Imports of seed potatoes had been growing in Morocco and reached their at least five-year high of 60,000 tonnes in the MY 2022/23

This year is marked by strong demand and insufficient supply of potatoes, a situation that professionals of the industry and media go so far as to call 'the global potato shortage'.

Este año se ha caracterizado por cambios en el clima mundial que han trastocado las producción de patatas y provocado alteraciones en los canales de aprovisionamiento.