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Healthy seed potatoes are the key to success for potato growers. Seed potato certification helps insure that growers are able to plant healthy seed potatoes and raise a profitable crop.

For nearly 100 years, Wisconsin seed potato growers have had their seed potato crops certified by the Wisconsin Seed Potato Certification Program (WSPCP). This program was started as a collaboration between farmers and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1913 and currently is administered through the UW-Madison Department of Plant Pathology, with oversite from the Wisconsin Seed Potato Improvement Association and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Consumer Protection.

The goal of the WSPCP is to provide Wisconsin potato farmers with seed potato planting stock that is healthy and without varietal mixture. This is acheived through visual inspections and laboratory testing of the seed potato crop by the WSPCP staff and through the expertise of Wisconsin seed potato growers. Early generation seed potato stocks produced 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.

The WSPCP is supported by three pillars; a potato tissue culture laboratory, the Lelah Starks Elite Foundation Seed Potato Farm, and a certification program to insure the health of Wisconsin certified seed potatoes.