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Horticultural Science
Sweetpotato and Potato Breeding and Genetics Programs

Staff

Craig Yencho and Mercy Kitavi work with sweet potato samples in a lab in Nairobi, Kenya.

Dec 12, 2023

A Patented Winner

The National Academy of Inventors named NC State University’s Craig Yencho a 2023 fellow for his contributions to improved sweetpotato and potato breeding and genetics, with an impact reaching from North Carolina to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Modesta Abugu in a sweetpotato field

Oct 14, 2022

Modesta Abugu: Improving Sweetpotato Flavor for Nutrition Security

Ph.D. student Modesta Abugu is researching flavor compounds in sweetpotatoes with a goal of increasing consumption and improving global nutrition security.
Craig Yencho presenting potato variety

Oct 29, 2021

Protecting Our State’s New Rural Cash Crop

The true profit potential of sweetpotatoes has been held back by an aggressive and invasive pest. NC State’s Craig Yencho will lead a $5 million grant-funded project to fight it.

Feb 9, 2021

PSI Profile: Chris Reberg-Horton, Platform Director for Resilient Agricultural Systems

The North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative’s platform director for resilient agricultural systems shares thoughts on the position, the initiative, agriculture and NC State.

Feb 8, 2021

PSI Profile: Ross Sozzani, Platform Director for Plant Improvement

The plant improvement platform director for the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative shares her vision: collaboration, innovative crop technologies and students ready for the workforce.
A man wearing a white hard hat at the construction site of the new N.C. PSI building.

Jan 18, 2021

PSI Profile: Geoff Bock, Interim Director of Operations

One of the first people tapped with turning the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative vision into a reality was CALS alumnus Geoff Bock. Hired in 2016 as the project manager, Bock now also serves as the interim director of operations.

Oct 27, 2020

Sweet Success With Sweetpotatoes

Sweetpotatoes are North Carolina’s state vegetable, and they’re not just for Thanksgiving anymore. Find out how North Carolina growers have positioned our state as the leader when it comes to production of this increasingly in-demand crop.
Jose Calderon on his farm

Oct 12, 2020

Jose “Pepe” Calderon Markets Sweet Potatoes Internationally

As an exporter with Barnes Farming, Jose “Pepe” Calderon created an international craving for sweet potatoes.
A bunch of sweetpotatoes

May 27, 2020

Big Data for Better Sweetpotatoes

An interdisciplinary team led by Cranos Williams is setting out on a three-year project to use artificial intelligence to make sweetpotatoes even more profitable. The team will image hundreds of thousands of sweetpotatoes to increase the percentage of sweetpotatoes grown that are USDA grade 1.
Craig Yencho and Bernard Yada ’14, Ph.D., survey sweetpotato vines at a research farm outside Kampala, Uganda.

May 4, 2020

NC State Researchers Continue Improving Sweetpotatoes for Africa

Craig Yencho and his team recently received part of a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue their work improving sweetpotatoes in Sub-Saharan Africa. The genomic tools developed through the three-year, $15-million-dollar grant will also improve sweetpotato breeding for North Carolina farmers.