‘Sweet potato can save children from death’

The International Potato Center, Peru a few days ago released the final report of its Scaling Up Sweetpotato through Agriculture and Nutrition (SUSTAIN) 2013‐2019, which aimed at improving the diets of millions of households in Africa and South Asia through biofortified (vitamin A‐rich) orange‐fleshed sweet potato (OFSP).

The report said the diet of millions of families with children under 5 years of age in Africa and South Asia have been improved with the orange‐fleshed sweet potato specifically designed to deal with vitamin A deficiency.

“Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is one of the most pernicious forms of undernourishment and can limit growth, weaken immunity, lead to blindness, and increase mortality in children. Globally, 165 million children under five suffer from VAD, mostly in Africa and Asia,” CIP Director General, Barbara Wells stressed during the launch.

The research, which was done in partnership with UKaid, CGIAR, national agriculture research institutions, health services, civil society organizations, and private sector partners reached over two million caregivers through nutrition education and training to improve their capacity for OFSP use for household nutrition, in particular feeding young children.

These household numbers include those that were directly engaged in SUSTAIN’s activities and those that indirectly accessed OFSP and nutrition knowledge through farmer‐to‐farmer diffusion and related partner initiatives using OFSP technologies and behaviour change modules developed by SUSTAIN.

Although the project which was rolled out in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Rwanda as well as Bangladesh and Tanzania, resulted in 1.3 million women and children regularly eating orange-fleshed sweet potato when available, Nigeria is home to many growers.

Simon Heck, programme leader, CIP said “The SUSTAIN project showed the enormous potential for achieving both healthy and sustainable diets in developing countries using improved varieties of crops that are already widely grown.”

“Sweet potato should be included as the basis for a sustainable diet in many developing countries because it provides more calories per hectare and per growing month than all the major grain crops, while tackling a major nutrition-related health issue.”

International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) quoted its Director General Martin Kropff at the event as saying that “there are almost 500 million small farms that comprise close to half the world’s farmland and are home to many of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

“Without access to appropriate technologies and support to sustainably intensify production, small farmers – the backbone of our global food system – will not be able to actively contribute to a global food transformation.”

The Potato Farmers Association of Nigeria (POFAN) has encouraged farmers across the country to cultivate the OFSP, adding that there is ready market for the product.

Chief Daniel Okafor, National President of POFAN, told Daily Trust on Sunday that they have been promoting the cultivation of the crop for many years now, adding that the CIP report further highlights the benefits they have long been preaching and urging Nigerian farmers to take advantage of.

According to him, POFAN has network all over and recently established a training school for coaching farmers.

Chief Okafor also told Daily Trust on Sunday that any interested farmer can get a bundle of the vines at the cost of N500 at the farm gate.

Also, Mrs Elizabeth Jibrin, who is an OFSP farmer told Daily Trust in Abuja, that she has helped some farmers to cultivate the crop, adding that she is willing to help farmers looking for the vines to start up their farms.

Here in Nigeria, the National Root Crop Research Institute, Umudike, Abia State, has been working on the breeding and improvement of the Vitamin A fortified Orange-fleshed Sweet potato even in its Nyanya Substation at the outskirts of Abuja.

Farmers can also approach the outstation for vines.