Innovation in Seed Potato Systems in Eastern Africa

The potato has the potential to raise smallholder income and improve food security in Eastern Africa. While improving the quality of seed potatoes can contribute to increasing its productivity, few seed potatoes are currently sourced from specialized multipliers, as farmers largely rely on the seed potatoes they save themselves. This often makes economic sense in the absence of affordable high quality stock and limited market security. Seed potato system interventions need to address the quality of specially multiplied and farm-saved seed potatoes simultaneously. This book shows that positive selection-the selection of healthy looking mother plants for the production of seed potatoes by aware potato farmers-can contribute to improving seed potato quality. The research done for this project made innovation the central objective of the exercise, rather than research results. This experience shows that it is worthwhile to search for opportunities for incremental innovation and that these can be of a surprising simple nature. For an effective contribution to innovation the mandate of research needs to allow for the active engagement in training, communication and scaling-up.