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 high-quality, clean early generation seed potato planting stock  without varietal mixture.

We do this through field inspections, diagnostic laboratory services, and minituber production of the seed potato crop along with the valued expertise of Wisconsin seed potato growers. Early generation seed potato stocks produced in our potato tissue culture laboratory, nuclear greenhouses, 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.