Sprouting of sweet potato storage roots reduces its quality. Low temperature storage is the most effective method of sprout suppression in sweet potato but its use is limited because of the occurrence of chilling injury (CI) in roots stored below 10℃. While continuous ethylene exposure also suppresses sprouting, the treatment can cause deleterious effects in sweet potato. Therefore, the efficacy of shortened ethylene exposure (24 hours) and 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) in sweet potato sprout suppression was investigated. Furthermore, sugar changes in sweet potatoes following these treatments were also studied. Shortened ethylene exposure and 1-MCP did not suppress sweet potato sprouting. However, 1-MCP enhanced sweet potato sprouting in two cultivars, suggesting that ethylene regulation of sweet potato sprouting may be genotype specific. Furthermore, 1-MCP reduced weight loss and maintained higher sugar contents of most cultivars that had not sprouted while it had no effect on sugars in the sprouting roots, an indication that sugar changes in sprouting roots were closely associated with the occurrence of sprouting. The study also investigated the efficacy of curing in reducing CI in ‘Bellevue’. Curing only marginally reduced CI in sweet potato by reducing surface pitting, lipid peroxidation and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, electrolyte leakage and internal tissue darkening were not reduced by curing, an indication that significant CI damage occurred despite curing. Furthermore, curing had no effect on starch and sugar concentration and total phenolic content and antioxidant activity in sweet potato prior to cold storage, which could explain the minimal effects of curing on CI since both soluble sugars and polyphenols scavenge ROS and reduce CI. However, curing has been suggested to increase both sugars and polyphenols in some cultivars and therefore it is likely that it would elicit a different CI response in those cultivars. The final part of the study documented cultural and storage practices among sweet potato small holder farmers in three regions of Zambia and found that storage was generally avoided, instead ‘piecemeal harvesting’, a form of in-situ storage in which roots are left in the ground and only harvested when needed for sale or consumption was widely practiced. However, the practice predisposed sweet potato roots to pest damage.