CSIR to name sweet potato after Kofi Annan

The Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has said it will name a sweet potato after the late UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

This is in recognition of Mr. Annan’s contribution towards sweet potato production through the founding of the Alliance for Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA), Senior Research Scientist and sweet potato and taro breeder, Dr Ernest Baafi said.

The new breed of sweet potato or AGRA SP-19 or CRI-Kofi Annan, is pending approval by the National Varietal Release Committee of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Mr. Annan, who was the seventh United Nations Secretary-General from January 1997 to December 2006, died peacefully in Switzerland on 18 August 2018 after a short illness.