Efforts by the International Potato Center (CIP) to enhance access to affordable nutritious food, foster inclusive business and employment growth, and drive climate resilience inspired ample media coverage in 2019. Hundreds of articles, TV and radio reports in countries across the globe mentioned CIP, including various in top-tier international media. Here are the top ten stories:
Science magazine featured CIP’s work to preserve and use potato biodiversity to breed climate smart potato varieties.
The international development outlet Devex featured the efforts of 2016 World Food Prize laureates Maria Andrade, Jan Low and Robert Mwanga to fight vitamin A deficiency by breeding and deploying biofortified sweetpotato varieties.
The Telegraph ran an article about the potential of biofortified potatoes and CIP’s successful use of biofortified sweetpotato to combat malnutrition.
Efforts to use artificial intelligence and smart phone apps to help African farmers detect and control potato viruses were featured in Scientific American.
As IPS News service reported, promoting orange-fleshed sweetpotato and other nutritious crops could be the best investment African governments make.
The Guardian‘s correspondent travelled high into the Peruvian Andes to report on the work of the Asociación Andes and CIP with indigenous farmers who preserve more than 1000 native potato varieties.
Nane Annan, widow of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, wrote an opinion piece for The Telegraph about the potential of sweetpotato to help African nations reduce malnutrition and adapt to climate change.
CIP scientist Stef De Haan wrote in Time magazine that the Andes Mountains, a crop biodiversity hotspot, are acutely affected by climate change, yet that agrobiodiversity could be key to helping farmers adapt.
CIP Principal Scientist and World Food Prize Laureate Jan Low wrote an op ed piece for the Thomson Reuters Foundation News on the potential of orange-fleshed sweetpotato to contribute to a healthy and sustainable diet solution for the Global South.
As The Ecologist reported, understanding the impact of global warming in the Andes Mountains and how farmers cope with them can provide key lessons for other regions.