Vitamin A Rich OFSP working wonders in Uganda

ORANGE-FLESHED SWEET POTATOES: IMPROVING LIVES IN UGANDA

A nutritious sweet potato variety is growing in popularity and becoming an important strategy to improve vitamin A deficiency across Uganda. Orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) is rich in vitamin A and is being disseminated with support from USAID under Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative.     OFSP has now been adopted by over 55,000 Ugandan farming households, with up to 237,000 households expected to be planting and eating it by 2018. In November 2013, the Government of Uganda released two more varieties of this potato, bringing the total number to six.

Tubers from OFSP harvest

The potato was Introduced in 2007 by HarvestPlus, a part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health. 

Orange Fleshed Sweetpotato as vegetables for man and animal

Agro Nigeria News

Fasakin Jadesola Oluwayemisi, a trainer cum facilitator is also an all-season vegetable farmer with bias for the cultivation of orange-fleshed-sweet potato. In an exclusive interview in Maya village where her farm is located, she discussed her new found farming-love and sundry issues. Excerpts;

What kind of farming do you practise?

I am a vegetable farmer and specifically into the Orange-fleshed-sweet potato production and am also a vine multiplier.

Pigs being fed with OSFP Leaves

What prompted your interest in farming?

I must say that it was my love for consuming fresh vegetables that triggered my interest and lured me away from my white-collar Job into farming and ever since, it has been a good experience. Thereafter, I developed myself by attending training and seminars on farming.

US pledges more support for Nigeria’s agric sector

PUNCH

Regional Agricultural Counselor in Nigeria for the US Department of Agriculture, Mr Kurt Seifarth, on Thursday restated his government’s commitment to supporting Nigeria in the development of her agriculture sector.

Seifarth disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on the sidelines of a one-day interactive conference with Nigeria’s retail food business operators.

Good News: AU Leaders’ Summit in Malabo, Pledge to Do Agric!

AUTHOR

Nachilala Nkombo8 July 2014 11:42AM UTC

One.org
Our voices were heard in Malabo, we made a difference!

On January 20, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, we launched the Do Agric, It Payscampaign. The campaign called on African governments to keep their promises to invest in agriculture and support smallholder farmers when they meet at the AU Heads Of state summit in June in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

ORANGE FLESHED SWEET POTATO (OFSP)

      

OFSP

Nigeria is home to over 50% of West Africa’s population,  70% of the population is below the poverty line (2007 est.). Malnutrition is widespread, with over 41% percent of children under five years of age are stunted – i.e. chronically malnourished  and the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency at 29.5%, a level of public health concern (Maziya Dixon et al., 2005).  To reduce high levels of malnutrition that leads to  increased child mortality, reduced learning, low economic capacity and effectively stunt economic development.

Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD)  in collaboration with International Potato Center (CIP) introduced the Orange-fleshed varieties (OFSP) that are extremely rich in beta-carotene, with the precursor for vitamin A which is better than White-fleshed varieties that have no beta-carotene. Among OFSP, a useful rule is: the deeper the intensity of the orange color, the greater the amount of beta-carotene.

OFSP varieties that can supply the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A for children and non-lactating women contain (300-700 μg retinol activity equivalents) OFSP is a high yielding crops with two different variety currently released after due research work by NRCRI Umudike, Abia State, It has yielding  potential of up to 25 tons per hectare compare with the low yielding variety of white fleshed of 5 ton/ha.