Local farmers have harvested the first season’s growth of sweet potatoes of a different color — purple, to be specific.
Dr. Kedong Da, a senior scientist at Danville’s Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, has tested seven different farms throughout the region to see whether this crop is a feasible “cash crop” for the region’s farmers.
“Now we can tell growers, yes, we can grow the purple sweet potato,” Da said confidently. “The other question we want to answer is which variety to grow. Some varieties cannot survive here.”
