Healthy seed potatoes are the key to success for potato growers and seed potato certification helps growers raise a profitable crop.

Since 1913, the Wisconsin Seed Potato Certification Program (WSPCP) has inspected and certified Wisconsin seed potatoes. The WSPCP, which is in the UW-Madison Department of Plant Pathology, started as a collaboration between farmers and UW faculty. Both the Wisconsin Seed Potato Improvement Association and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Consumer Protection also provide program oversight.

Our goal is to provide potato farmers with seed potato planting stock that is healthy and without varietal mixture.

We do this through inspections and laboratory testing of the seed potato crop and through the expertise of Wisconsin seed potato growers. Early generation seed potato stocks produced in our potato tissue culture laboratory and at the Lelah Starks Elite Foundation Seed Potato Farm aid in this endeavor by providing Wisconsin farmers with a reliable source of healthy seed potatoes.