Sweet potato is one of the most widely grown root crops in SSA, it is particularly important in
countries surrounding the Great Lakes in Eastern and Central Africa, in Angola, Madagascar, Malawi
and Mozambique in Southern Africa, Nigeria in West Africa and China being the largest producer
worldwide. In Africa, it is grown predominantly in small plots by poorer farmers, and hence known as
the “poor man’s food.” However it is among well known and established crops in Southern, Eastern
and South western parts of Ethiopia. It is produced annually on over 53 thousand hectares of land with
total production over 4,240 tons and average productivity of 8.0 tons per hectare. The production and
productivity of the crop is extremely low as compared to other African and Asian countries where it
gives more than 18t/ha. The lower productivity of sweet potato is mainly due to the existence of
common, major, minor and sporadic insect pests. Sweet potato weevil is known as the most pit fall for
production and productivity of the crop followed by viral diseases in the country. In addition, sweet
potato butter fly is the most devastating pest in major sweet potato growing zones in the country but its
occurrence is sporadic based on agro-ecological condition. Thus this paper aimed to review the
prevalence, incidence, population dynamics, distribution of economically important sweet potato insect
pests and their management options, particularly on broader aspects of research and production
challenges of sweet potato in relation to economically important insect pests in the country.