Sweet potato originated from Central and/or South America. The International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru, has the international mandate for research on sweet potatoes in developing countries. Production of sweet potato in Africa, 7.5 million metric tons, amounts to 6% of world production. About 75% of sweet potato production is in East Africa, mainly around Lake Victoria (Fig. 1). Uganda, the largest African producer and the third-largest producer in the world (21), grows approximately 2.2 million metric tons, equivalent to the combined production of the Americas. Countries neighboring Uganda also rank high in production, and Rwanda has the greatest per capita production. However, during periods of hardship in Africa, the importance of root crops, particularly cassava and sweet potato, far outweighs the tonnage of production. Even where corn predominates, root crops provide food security during the famine caused by drought, against which they are more resistant than corn.