Selection of sweetpotato clones for flour production

In order to expand the current demand for sweetpotato in Malaysia, further processing into bakery and pasta products using the flour should be considered. This will also be a means of reducing the large annual wheat flour import bill. A high conversion rate from fresh roots to flour calls for a root dry matter content in excess of 35%. Ten introductions of sweetpotato clones from Peru and Japan were evaluated against local check varieties, Gendut, Telong and Jalomas, in four contrasting agro-ecologies (upland mineral soils, bris, sand-tailings and acid sulphate soils), the latter three of which are considered marginal, over one to two seasons. While none of the test clones had outstanding fresh root yields compared with Telong, four Japanese clones (KNAES99T-1, KNAES99T-2, KNAES99T-3 and Kyukei 63) had the highest root dry matter contents, ranging from 36.6% to 37.4%, sufficiently high for making flour. Taking both fresh root yield and root dry matter content into consideration, the best clone would be KNAES99T-1. The bris agro-ecology generally supported the highest fresh root yields.