A Review of Production, Post-harvest Handling and Marketing of Sweetpotatoes in Kenya and Uganda

George Ooko Abong^1*, Victoria Claire Makungu Ndanyi¹, Archileo Kaaya², Solomon Shibairo³, Michael Wandayi Okoth¹, Peter Obimbo Lamuka¹, Nicanor Obiero Odongo¹, Elizabeth Wanjekeche⁴, Joseph Mulindwa² and Peter Sopade⁵

¹Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Technology, University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 29053-00625, Nairobi, Kenya

²Department of Food and Nutrition School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bio-engineering, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda

³Kibabii University College, P.O. Box 1699, 50200, Bungoma, Kenya

⁴Kenya Agricultural Livestock Research Organization Kitale, Kenya

⁵Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia.

Corresponding Author Email: georkoyo@yahoo.com

Sweetpotato (Ipomea batatas) is a versatile crop that serves the roles of food and nutrition security, cash crop in both raw and processed forms. It is a source of livestock feed and has great potential as a raw material for industrial processing. The potential of sweetpotato has been greatly under exploited by the fact that it has been regarded as a poor man’s food and is mainly grown under marginal conditions for subsistence by most producers, who are rural small-scale farmers in developing countries, such as Kenya and Uganda. Losses in the highly perishable root crop and its leaves are exacerbated by lack of appropriate postharvest knowledge, technologies and facilities. Inadequate information on available cultivars also limits the maximum utilization of the crop and leaves. The current review examines production potential, post harvest handling practices, marketing, and physicochemical and nutritional properties of sweet potatoes.

Storage; Curing; Consumption; Harvesting; Physicochemical Properties

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