Orange fleshed sweetpotato is high in vitamin A and a very healthy choice for pregnant women
and children under 5 years of age Credit: S. Quinn/CIP. Original story.
In terms of nutrition there have been lots of benefits for us and our families from our decision to farm orange-fleshed sweet potato. We now feed our children the sweet potato. This means they get vitamin A in their diets.
We used to get vitamin A from medicine or from eggs or fish, which are all very expensive to buy. But now we no longer sell our things in order to buy those expensive items as we can now eat the orange-fleshed sweet potato to get the vitamin A we need for us and our children.
Scaling up Sweetpotato through Agriculture and Nutrition (SUSTAIN) is a five-year partnership (2013-2018) coordinated by the International Potato Center (CIP) and financed by the UK Department for International Development to spread the nutrition benefits of biofortified OFSP to more farmers.
The program aims to reach 1.2 million households with children under 5 years across four countries: Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Rwanda through mutually-reinforcing incentives to increase adoption of OFSP, consumption of Vitamin-A-rich foods, and diversification of OFSP utilization.