Sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., plays a very important role in traditional cropping systems in the tropics and sub-tropics. It ranks fifth among food crops in terms of total production in developing countries. Despite its importance and the large number of germplasm accessions collected, useful genetic markers in sweet potato and its wild relatives are quite limited in comparison with many other crop plants die to bilogical characteristics such as polyploidy, vegetative propagation, self and cross-incompatibility.
In this paper, past and present status of collection and evaluation of sweet potato germplasm is outlined. Problems and needs for the further development of the germplasm activities are also discussed.