Quality Diets for Better Health: Integrated orange-fleshed sweetpotato intervention improved dietary practice in Southern Ethiopia

Poor diet quality for women and children under 2 years of age is the major public health problem in developing countries claiming lives of millions of children and mothers. Nutrition sensitive, climate smart orange-fleshed sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam] intervention proved to be an effective approach to ensure enhanced diet quality and reduce the health burden faced by women and children. The objective of this study is to contribute evidence generation effort by assessing effectiveness of introduction of vitamin A rich, orange-fleshed sweet potato cultivars alongside social and behavior change communication (SBCC) strategy and agronomic practice in improving diet quality. Cluster-Randomized Control Trial design was implemented on cross-sectional data collected from project beneficiary and control households in 2017 (n = 1451) and 2019 (n = 2065). Quasi-experimental double difference analysis is used to measure the impact of the intervention on key nutrition outcome indicators. Nutrition sensitive climate smart agriculture focused on OFSP cultivars with integrated nutrition behavioral change social communication and agronomic training presented significant potential to improved food security, dietary diversity, and frequency of vitamin A food reach intake among rural population of southern Ethiopia. Thus, it is concluded that, enhanced investment in nutrition dense agricultural commodities such as Orange fleshed sweetpotatoes, with appropriate training on both nutrition and agronomic can be effective and cheaper means to address diet quality problem.