The sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) is an important crop not only for human consumption, but also for animal feed. The foliage (leaves and stems) and non-commercial roots that remain after harvest of commercial production can be used as forage for animal feed in mixed crop-livestock production systems. Thus, the sweetpotato crop can provide an additional income to farmers. Some varieties have the root production/livestock dual-purpose use trait, while others have the potential of forage use mainly. In 2002, Dr Valverde a scientist in the International Potato Center, reported a set of sweetpotato accessions with potential use as forage, high dual-purpose, low dual-purpose, and use mainly for root production. Different variables as total dry matter for forage, proportion of commercial and non-commercial roots, and ratio of root to forage were analyzed to confirm the type of category each accession fits in. Similarly, different foliage cutting frequencies that did not affect yield were evaluated.

The International Potato Center (CIP) conserves one of the largest collections of sweetpotato germplasm as public good under the terms and conditions of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). This collection holds 4,860 sweetpotato accessions in in vitro conservation. This germplasm is available for distribution for farmers to use in agriculture, and stakeholders interested in the material for research, education and breeding in food and agriculture projects.

From the sweetpotato clones selected by Dr. Velarde (2002 and 2009), a subgroup of 9 accessions is conserved and available for distribution in the CIP-Genebank. This set of accessions belong to three categories: forage (CIP 421383, CIP 420855, CIP 420439, CIP 420386, CIP 420717, CIP 420068), high dual-purpose (CIP 420169, CIP 420120), and low forage-high root production (CIP 420152). These accessions were planted and characterized at the San Ramón experimental station at 800 m.s.n.m. in the department of Junín -Peru during the 2014-2015 campaign. Photos of the cuttings and roots were taken as part of the documentation presented in this subset.

References Velarde CU. (2000). Using competing traits to select dual-purpose sweetpotato in native germplasm. International Potato Center (CIP), Lima, Peru. P 289-94 Velarde, C.U., Quiroz, R., Mares, V., & Casimiro, J.P. (2009). Potential role of sweet potato to improve smallholder crop-livestock production systems.