Manual for Sweetpotato Integrated Production and Pest Management

The production of this manual has been an integral part of a three year project titled ‘Promotion of sustainable sweetpotato production and post-harvest management through farmer field schools in East Africa’ which aimed to increase the returns from sweetpotato enterprise through improved production and post-harvest management by smallholders. The core team of collaborators in the project were individuals from the International Potato Center (CIP), FAO Global IPM Facility in Kenya, the Ugandan National Agricultural Research Organisation and the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), UK.

The manual was initially based on a manual developed for Sweetpotato Farmer Field Schools in South East Asia, and has over time been modified and adapted for use by facilitators of sweetpotato farmer field schools in sub-Saharan Africa. The technical contents of the manual draw on many separate sweetpotato studies throughout sub-Saharan Africa and further afield, and we gratefully acknowledge all those who were involved in generating those findings.

Drafts of the sweetpotato IPPM FFS manual for sub-Saharan Africa were field tested during the two pilot seasons of sweetpotato FFS. Comments from all the different stakeholders following their experience using each draft were collected at the annual planning/ evaluation workshops and were then incorporated or acted upon in order to improve the next draft.

The manual is intended for use by farmer field school facilitators be they extension staff, farmer facilitators or NGO/CBO staff facilitators and we thank the various stakeholders on the ground whose enthusiasm has ensured the completion of this manual. Thanks also go to GTZ for meeting the cost of the ISBN number that was obtained through the department of Agriculture Extension at Makerere University, and for supporting the printing of more copies of this manual for wider dissemination.

This manual is an output from a research project funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development for the benefit of developing countries. The views expressed are not necessarily those of DFID. R8167. Crop Protection Programme.

If you would like more information about the manual please use the contact details below:
Tanya Stathers, Natural Resources Institute (NRI), Chatham Maritime, Kent, ME4 4TB, UK.
Email: t.e.stathers@gre.ac.uk
Sam Namanda or Regina Kapinga, International Potato Centre, PO Box 22274, Kampala, UGANDA. Email: namandasam@yahoo.co.uk or r.kapinga@cgiar.org
Robert Mwanga, NAARI (NARO), PO Box 7084, Kampala, UGANDA
Email: rmwanga@naro-ug.org or naari@afsat.com
Godrick Khisa, FAO East African Sub-regional project for IPPM FFS, P.O. Box 917, Kakamega, KENYA
Email: ffsproj@africaonline.co.ke

This manual should be cited as follows: Stathers, T., Namanda, S., Mwanga, R.O.M., Khisa, G., Kapinga, R. (2005) Manual for Sweetpotato Integrated Production and Pest Management Farmer Field Schools in Sub-Saharan Africa. International Potato Center, Kampala, Uganda. pp168 +xxxi. ISBN 9970-895-01-X FAO IPPM FFS PROGRAMME.

This page contains links to pdfs of all the content of the Manual. Some chapters have been subdivided to keep each file to a manageable length.