Sweet potato production chain: a technological agenda

Abstract

This paper characterize the sweet potato production chain in Brazil and to identify the main technological critical points that can be interpreted as agronomic research´s challenges. The empirical strategy consisted of a bibliographic review, analysis of data and interviews with different economic agents in the production chain. The results aim to contribute to a technological research agenda. From 2006 to 2017 Agricultural Census, the Northeast lost the role of the largest producer of sweet potato to the Southeast, which more than doubled its share. Most of the commercial transactions in the sweet potato production chain in Brazil are established on the basis of informal contractual relationships and the command hierarchy of technological innovation occurs in the direction from the retail company to the producer. The main critical points in the sweetpotato production chain are low productivity, low profitability of producers, difficulty in adapting to traceability standards, disappearance of local cultivars, lack of labor in some regions and lack of mechanization for planting and harvesting.