Exploiting heterosis for major clonal crop gains: sweetpotato hybrids go from pipe dream to reality

Orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) is one of the most important examples of breeding impact in CGIAR history, with over six million smallholder farmers and their families now benefiting from the Vitamin A biofortified crop. To reach a new level of impact, breeders at CIP set out to realize the theoretical potential of hybrid sweet potato breeding to achieve a step change in genetic gains for root yield and climate resilience-related traits within an optimized 5-6 year breeding cycle.