Sweet potato, also known as sweet potato, is a twining herbaceous vine of the family Dioscoreaceae. Sweet potato is a short-day crop that likes light, likes warm temperatures, is not cold-tolerant, and is relatively drought-tolerant. Mainly distributed south of 40° north latitude. The cultivated area is largest in Asia, followed by Africa, and America ranks third.

Sweet potato is a cross-pollinated crop and is self-infertile. The offspring propagated by seeds have very inconsistent traits and low yields. Therefore, in addition to cross-breeding, vegetative propagation of roots, stems, vines, and potato tips is generally used in production. Seedling propagation is currently a commonly used propagation method in sweet potato production. That is, the latent adventitious buds primordia under the skin of the potato tuber are used to germinate long seedlings. The seedlings are then cut and planted in a nursery for propagation. The seedlings are then cut from the nursery and planted in the field (also The seedlings can be directly cut and planted in the field). This method is easy to obtain high-quality seedlings, but it is not economical in terms of labor and land use. The vegetative propagation method of stems and vines is commonly used in warm-winter areas of southern China. It can be used to cut seedlings in spring potato fields for planting in autumn and winter potato fields, or to cut seedlings in autumn potato fields and transplant them in nurseries to propagate over the winter, and then cut the seedlings. Planted in fields. This method can save labor and land and is more economical. However, the growth of the seedlings will gradually decline and degrade, and the yield will be reduced, so the seedlings must be renewed every 2-3 years with seed potatoes.

China is the world's largest sweet potato producer, accounting for about 60% of the world's planting area and about 80% of the world's total harvested output. According to differences in climate conditions and farming systems, the entire production in China is divided into five planting areas: 1. The northern spring potato area with short frost-free period and early low temperature, including Liaoning, Jilin, Hebei, northern Shaanxi and other places; 2. The warm monsoon area The spring and summer potato area of ??the Huanghuai River Basin with a temperate climate is suitable for planting spring and summer potatoes, and the planting area accounts for about 40% of the country's total area; 3. The summer potato area of ??the entire Yangtze River Basin except Qinghai and the northwest Sichuan Plateau; 4. Tropic of Cancer To the north, in the southern summer and autumn potato area south of the Yangtze River Basin, in addition to growing summer potatoes, some areas also grow autumn potatoes. 5. The coastal land south of the Tropic of Cancer and the southern autumn and winter potato areas on islands such as Taiwan have a tropical humid climate with high temperatures in summer and a small temperature difference between day and night. Autumn and winter potatoes are mainly grown.