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Africa Potato Centre to hold triennial conference next year

African Potato Centre (APC) will hold its 12th triennial conference in Lilongwe from June 27 to July 1 2022.

According to the centre’s statement, the conference will be held under the theme Harnessing Potato and Sweet Potato Innovations for Resilient and Healthier Agri-food Systems.

The previous triennial conference was held in August 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda.

African Potato Centre president Wilkinson Makumba in the statement said the conference will provide professionals with a platform where they can discuss studies pertaining to potatoes.

He said:  “The conference will provide an opportunity for scientists and other stakeholders throughout Africa and around the world to come together for networking, exchange information and ideas and to initiate new collaborative studies on sweet potato and potato.”

The centre said the conference will be jointly organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the International Potato Centre and some of its partners.

It is expected that renowned scientists, up-and-coming researchers and other stakeholders will attend the meeting either virtually or in person.

Proposed sub-themes include breeding and genetic innovations for increased resilience, production and nutrition, innovative approaches for building sustainable seed systems and policies and approaches for achieving impact at scale.

The association was formed in September 1995 with numerous objectives aimed at promoting interests of potato and sweet potato workers in Africa and facilitating greater inter-country collaboration and horizontal exchange of information and exchange visits by scientists.

It seeks to champion the stimulation on the development of potato and sweet potato research, production, and utilisation in Africa and to popularise potato and sweet potato as important food items.

Besides, the association was also launched to act as a link between the International Potato Centre and other relevant associations in the world and member countries and to monitor training opportunities to its members.

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