Sweet Potato Grows Into the Official Vegetable of Mississippi

The sweet potato has really grown on the State of Mississippi — literally! The storage root formally becomes the “Official Vegetable of Mississippi” on July 1, after Gov. Tate Reeves signed Senate House Bill 2383 into law this past month.

Considered a specialty crop, sweet potatoes have a statewide production value of $82 million annually—small potatoes compared to yields of soybeans and corn, according to Mississippi State University Agriculture Economist Will Maples. However, Maples said Mississippi is known as a major producer in the U.S. of the fibrous plant.

“We are third to North Carolina and California as a domestic producer,” Maples says. “Of these big three, we’re also third in number of farms with 156, while the other two have 528 and 202, respectively.”

---

RELATED CONTENT: Research Work Pays Off in Quest To Build a Better Sweet Potato

---

Most prominently grown in Mississippi is the orange-colored, majestically named ‘Beauregard’ variety on between 28,000 and 30,000 acres yearly, with the town of Vardaman as the epicenter of production. Known as “The Sweet Potato Capital of the World” to those endeared to the root, the community first grew the plant there around 1915, which thrived in the soil and climate.

For more, continue reading at msstate.edu.