Orange-fleshed Sweetpotato

En français

HKI has added the introduction and promotion of the orange-fleshed sweetpotato, OFSP, to its efforts in sub-Saharan Africa to improve nutrition, child, and maternal survival in countries severely affected by vitamin A deficiency. This variety, as opposed to the traditionally grown white-fleshed sweetpotatoes, has high levels of beta carotene that the body converts into vitamin A. Recent research has shown that just 125 grams of one variety of OFSP provides primary school children with over twice the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A. HKI's programs increase the awareness of consumers and producers about the importance of vitamin A-rich foods for adequate infant and young children's nutrition through a comprehensive nutrition education campaign and increase the demand for the OFSP and its products with social marketing campaigns.

HKI's OFSP work began in Niger, in collaboration with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research Centers- CGIAR in 1997. Since 1997 the collaborate efforts have grown to include the International Potato Center- CIP, the McKnight Foundation's Collaborative Crop Research Program- CCRP, and the HarvestPlus Challenge Program. These agricultural research organizations have made significant progress in engineering OFSP varieties that combine high beta carotene content with high dry matter content and high yield in Latin American, Asia and East Africa. They work with HKI to find the most suitable varieties of OFSP to introduce through HKI programs in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mozambique. Several of these varieties have been well accepted by producers and consumers and have thrived in different ecological conditions.

CIP and HKI's other partners provide technical guidance in OFSP production, support OFSP breeding programs to develop varieties that respond to consumers' and/or farmers' needs and advocate for OFSP adoption. HKI's role is to develop educational and behavior change communications and other strategies to increase OFSP demand, advocate for OFSP adoption at national and sub-national levels, develop complementary health interventions and provide training and supervision to front-line implementers (agricultural extension workers, community groups and farmers). HKI forges partnerships with key governmental, research and non-governmental partners, to ensure transfer of capacity and potential for scaling up.

HKI's OFSP programs collaborate with schools, white sweetpotato producers and women's groups, to disseminate the plants. A village nursery is generally set-up in a school and groups of 30 to 35 women or other volunteers receive cuttings, planting materials and recommendations on the use of organic fertilizers. Producers and producer groups are assisted by HKI staff or agricultural extension workers trained by HKI. This participatory approach involves negotiating with the communities and empowering producers' groups to be responsible for set-up and maintenance of the nurseries and to ensure the distribution of cuttings within every village. The distribution of OFSP planting material and nutrition education has been integrated into school and community gardening activities successfully since 2003.

Communication strategies to encourage acceptance and consumption of these potatoes by growers and consumers are developed by HKI and local partners. Innovative behavior change approaches to increase production and consumption have resulted in the improved vitamin A intake of target groups.

Program monitoring and evaluation indicates positive impacts from OFSP programs on consumer knowledge of nutrition, OFSP production and consumption, child-feeding practices, and beta carotene intake. Several surveys using a food frequency methodology developed by HKI have revealed considerable increases in sweet potato consumption by children in West Africa. In one targeted province, OFSP were consumed at least once a week by 85% to 91% of adult women and by 18 to 30% of children, depending on the site, when OFSP were promoted during the harvest period. Furthermore, there is evidence that OFSP promotion results in their substitution for less nutritious white-fleshed varieties, as well as the adoption of OFSP cultivation by farmers who have never grown sweetpotatos. These results indicate that with minimal assistance, women and their families can successfully produce OFSP and benefit from their nutritional properties.

In collaboration with CIP and HarvestPlus, HKI was awarded one of four Outstanding Innovative Partnership Program prizes in the 2006 CGIAR Innovation Marketplace competition for work on OFSP. Currently, HKI is looking to expand OFSP programs to Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Senegal and Zimbabwe.