Source: Brandon Herring, NCDA&CS, 3/22/21


At first glance, the new building at the Horticultural Crops Research Station may not seem that remarkable. It’s a light beige metal building. 60 feet wide. 100 feet long. It’s distinguished by its reddish-maroon trim. Otherwise, it’s a near twin to the older building just beside it.

What it lacks in pizazz, the new building makes up for in its function and its value to the sweet potato research done on the station outside Clinton. It has more than doubled the station’s sweet potato storage capacity, according to station superintendent Hunter Barrier. The space also allows for more elbow room for researchers, their teams and the station employees.

“There’s a lot of sorting and going through sweet potato samples and seeing what project leaders want to plant,” Barrier said. “So we need room to get in there and sort everything out. We have more room to work now.”

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