Mississippi State University builds $1.6M sweet potato storage research facility at Pontotoc Ridge station

Mississippi State University is building a $1.6 million sweet potato storage research facility at its Pontotoc Ridge-Flatwoods Branch Experiment Station, targeting yield and quality losses that occur after harvest, the university’s Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (MAFES) said at a recent producer meeting.

Cory Gallo, MAFES associate director, said the new facility will focus on improving storage processes to deliver better yield outcomes for growers. Sweet potatoes are typically cured and stored for months after harvest, and storage losses are a significant source of margin erosion for producers, particularly in the U.S. South where the bulk of the country’s production is concentrated.

The Pontotoc station sits 30 miles north of Vardaman, Mississippi, marketed as the “Sweet Potato Capital of the World,” and is the only MAFES branch with research focused on the crop. It is also one of six Clean Plant Centers in the National Clean Plant Network for sweet potatoes, providing virus-tested planting material to growers nationwide. The station has previously hosted the MSU-led CleanSEED Project, a $4.8 million USDA-funded initiative on clean-plant production launched in 2022.

Nationally, Mississippi ranks second in sweet potato production behind North Carolina, with the U.S. crop valued at roughly $110 million annually. While sweet potato is not a fertilizer-intensive row crop, the storage facility is part of a broader MAFES specialty-crop research portfolio at Pontotoc that includes fertilizer trials, weed control, irrigation, and cover crops across corn, soybean, cotton, and specialty crops.

MSU has not disclosed a public commissioning date for the new facility, the source of the $1.6 million capital budget, or how many additional staff the facility will support. Construction is under way at the Pontotoc Ridge-Flatwoods Branch Experiment Station.

Source: Grain Journal