Scaling up sweetpotato through agriculture and nutrition with Drocella Yankulije an OFSP farmer in Rwanda

 

“We are making money from OFSP farming. The roots are admired in the village because of their colour, because they are sweet and are rich in vitamins.” Drocella Yankulije – OFSP farmer and founder of an OFSP youth group in Rwanda

 

My name is Drocella Yankulije. I am an orange-fleshed sweetpoato farmer and supplier and the founder of a youth group working on sweetpotato farming here in Rwanda. I started farming orange-fleshed sweetpotato, or OFSP, in September of 2011. That year I received OFSP vines through the CIP-led SASHA project (Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa).  Receiving the planting material made me very interested in OFSP farming. I liked that it was different from the traditional sweetpotato crop that was available here. I decided to plant and cultivate the vines to see what it would produce.

 

 

Watch this video to hear more about Drocella’s story with orange fleshed sweetpotato. To see more images of Drocella Yankulije and her farm click here.  To read more about the SUSTAIN project in Rwanda click here and to see more images of SUSTAIN in sub-Saharan Africa click here.

 

SUSTAIN is a five-year partnership (2013-2018) coordinated by CIP and financed by the UK Department for International Development that aims to scale up the nutrition benefits of biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP).