Nigeria’s Oil And Irish Potato

Irish Potato as a Replacement for Oil in Nigeria
NOVEMBER 6, 2014

By Ademola Adegbamigbe AgriNigeria News

The financial difficulty Nigeria experiences at present reminds me of the Irish, their potato and the famine that hit them like a stiletto, scattering them into the four winds. Between 1845 and 1852, what was popularly referred to as the Irish Potato famine killed over one million people. Worse still, the famine made over a million others to emigrate to the Americas, Australia, Africa, and elsewhere.

Cause of their problem was the introduction of this staple. Before the introduction of potato to Ireland, the people fed on butter, milk and grain products. Initially, potato was food for the “big people” but it later stole its way into the homes of peasants, overtaking what it met on the dining table.

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.