The primary purpose of this agreement is to provide clean plants of sweet potato cultivars and breeding lines to the louisiana and U.S. Sweet potato industries and other stakeholders

The Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service awarded Louisiana State University Agricultural Center a $250,877 cooperative agreement on July 1, 2026, to provide clean plants of sweet potato cultivars and breeding lines to Louisiana and the U.S. sweet potato industry.

The award funds diagnostics and therapy of new breeding lines, maintenance of clean sweet potato varieties, and production of clean vine cuttings for commercial growers. The work is expected to generate approximately 10–15 new clean accessions and sufficient greenhouse foundation plants to yield over 70,000 vine cuttings for sale to commercial growers and enough vine cuttings to plant 30 acres for production of storage roots to sell as seed to the commercial industry. The recipient projects that cleaner plant material will result in healthier crops with increased quality, yield, and profit across the sweet potato sector.

Performance occurs in Louisiana and runs through June 30, 2027.

Activities will include diagnostics and therapy of new breeding lines, maintenance of clean sweetpotato varieties, and production of clean vine cuttings for commercial growers. These activities are expected to result in about 10-15 new clean accessions and production of sufficient greenhouse foundation plants to provide over 70,000 vine cuttings for sale to commercial growers and to provide sufficient vine cuttings to plant 30 acres for production of storage roots to sell as seed to commercial growers. The impact of this work on the sweet potato industry will be more robust production of clean plant material and users of clean plants will benefit from healthier crops with increased quality, yield, and profit.