MISSISSIPPI STATE – A sweet potato production conference organized by Mississippi State University faculty and collaborators in other states won a national award on Nov. 10 for excellence in promoting multistate research.

MSU faculty Ramon Arancibia, Raja Reddy, Steve Meyers, Mark Shankle, Juan Silva, Jason Ward and Filip To are members of the National Sweetpotato Collaborators working group that planned the annual conference of sweet potato researchers.

The conference was named the 2013 national Multistate Excellence in Research Award winner by the Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy. The award was presented at the Nov. 10-12 annual meeting of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.

The sweet potato conference has been held since 1939 and was designed for collaborators to exchange information on all aspects of production, as well as ongoing research topics.

“This is an important specialty crop with state and Agricultural Research Service programs lacking a full complement of scientists and Extension specialists serving all critical areas,” award nominators stated. “Only through this collaborative group can a comprehensive treatment exist.”

The Multistate Excellence in Research Award is given to encourage and highlight states working together on projects that each state values but cannot address alone. This characterizes the Multistate Research Program’s management objectives.

In addition to these MSU researchers, the conference brought together researchers from California, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Arkansas, South Carolina and Canada.