Presentation by Maria Andrade during the Foundation Day and Consultation on Farming System for Nutrition MSSRF, Chennai August 7‐9, 2017.

1. Building the Evidence Base & Varieties to Achieve Impact with
Vitamin A rich sweetpotato
MARIA ANDRADE
Foundation Day and Consultation on Farming System for Nutrition
MSSRF, Chennai August 7-9, 2017

2. Out of a world population of 7 BILLION
• About 2 BILLION suffer from micronutrient deficiency
• About 800 MILLION suffer from calory deficiency
About 70% of African make a living through agriculture
Most farmers are smallholders, poor & malnourished
To feed 9 billion humans who’ll be living on Earth in 35
years
We need to double the amount of food available on less land

3. Progress made in Africa, challenges of diet-related
premature death, poor development and disease remain.
In Mozambique, 43 percent of children under five are
stunted due to chronic illness and poor diets.
Only one out of every 10 children under two receive the
sufficient nutrients they need to be able to grow and
develop to their full potential.
Alone, child undernutrition costs the country 62 billion
MZN, or 11 percent of its annual GDP in Mozambique.
Progress has been slow, especially in light of recognition by
government that nutrition matters.
Our focus must shift from feeding people to nourishing
them.
In doing so, we must harness the power of the public and
private sectors, and civil society to encourage and enable
consumers to access better diets.
It is imperative therefore that policy makers pay more
attention to food systems if nutrition planning is to be
effectively implemented.
The reality is complex.

4. Drought is a problem
1. Integrate and align water and soil management
strategies to maximize response to drought together
with breeding effort for nutrient dense crop
2. Promoting water conservation and more resilient
water supplies
3. Improve nutrient and water supplies where yields
are lowest
Use Resources more efficiently
Improve the resilience of the native biodiversity
Improve seeds, private sector investment, training

5. Elimination of hunger and malnutrition require more than
transforming the production of food
• There is need to assist small holder farmers to build
resilience to natural disaster and climate change
• Use of advances in science and technology to boost
yields
• Make partner with the private sector to reach the
market
• Strengthening in breaking through technologies such as
climate resilient seeds, cultural management and
improve communication

6. Some general facts – of Sweetpotato
In few countries a staple - in many countries secondary
30 countries are producing 99% of the total world
sweetpotato production – but sweetpotato is produced
in more than 110 countries of the world
Sweetpotato produces more food calories per unit area
per unit time than any other crop
15 t/ha (poor soils) to 25 t/ha (good soils are
possible with currently available varieties
Live saver or poor man’s crops / an image that is
gradually changing nowadays. Classic food security
Incredible amount of genetic diversity

7. Mashed OFSP – for puree
and or for bread
production
Need 1: The moist sweet to high dry matter
early bulking OFSP (Tumwegamire et al. 2016)
Need 2: The animal feed SP in Asia and parts
of SSA
Need 3: Non-sweet sweetpotato -> taste like
potato
Need 4: Ready to eat (gari, porridges ) in
mixture
New Uses & Markets => more / different needs from breeding
Bread made with a ratio of
66% wheat flour and 34%
mashed OFSP in
Mozambique 2009 => bio /
fortified bread
Selection for long
stems & leaves (China
2008) – appears like
young bean pods
– Uganda 2008
sweetpootato as
animal feed (Java /
Indonesia 2014 – a
cheap fodder crop)

8. Orange-fleshed Sweetpotato (OFSP):
The Model for Biofortified Crops with a
Visible Trait
* Higher yielding
* Rich in Beta-Carotene
* Earlier maturing
§All types good sources of vitamins C, K, E and several B
§Most varieties in SSA white-fleshed: no beta-carotene
§100 gms (one small root) meets daily vitamin A needs of
a young child
Evidence at the Community Level: OFSP contributed 35%
of vitamin A intake 15% decline in prevalence of
vitamin A deficiency in under 5s

9. Investing in Orange Fleshed
Sweetpotato (OFSP):
Was it Worth the Investment?
An Experience of 20 Years
1997-1999
Adaptation trials of
first generation (68
clones)
April 1999
1st multi-sectorial
meeting where
spoke on the
potential of OFSP
June 1999
1st strategy to fight
the deficiencies of
Micronutrients

10. Opportunity of Development Emerging from Disaster
(floods of 2000
2000
Release of 9
varieties 1st
generation
2000-2002
Distribution after
flood to 120,000
HHs
2003-2006
Integration into
development
programs for
dissemination
(700,000 HHs)
1st Nutrition
Sensitization
Campaign

11. Intensive Research & Discovering the Need to Initiate a
Breeding Program in Mozambique
2003-2005
Towards Sustainable
Nutritional
Improvement (TSNI)
study in Zambézia:
Demonstrated the
effectiveness of
integrated nutrition-
agriculture
intervention
Using OFSP
2005
Severe drought , 2/3 of
the country affected. More
than 50% of sweetpotato
lost (both white & orange)
DROUGHT
2003-2004
Problems of localized
drought:
started looking for fund to
initiate a breeding
program in the country

12. The Breeding Program with Emphasis on Selecting
Material Tolerant to Drought &
Rich in pro-Vitamin A
2006-2010
Develop new
varieties of OFSP
More adapted to
Mozambican
conditions
N
4 years instead of 8 years!
1) Exploit the characteristics of
a vegetative propagated crop
2) More sites, earlier in the
process
3) NIRS machine to evaluate
nutritional quality of each
sample in 2 minutes
3) Evaluate 5,000 clones
annually per site
N New methodology
Accelerated
B Breeding
2007-2010
Intensive study
Reaching End Users
in Zambézia:
How to reach many
HHs in a cost
effective way

13. A Great Result:
15 New drought tolerant OFSPVarieties
Released in February 2011
Result
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
The material is from
Mozambique but also will
help other African
countries

14. SEVEN MORE RELEASED IN
2016

15. Breeding in Africa for Africa
§ "Accelerated" sweetpotato breeding approach to
produce varieties in 3-4 years instead of 7-8 years
§ By 2016, 42 OFSP varieties bred in Africa released
being 20 released in Mozambique
The Speedbreeders
at crossing block
A controlled cross

16. Storage root yield (t/ha) on dry matter basis

17. Fe and Zn increments in MT15; trial planted in September 2015 EC
– experimental clone; ICHECK –
international check; LCHECK – local check
UMIRR2015BUMDT2015B
1.7
1.9
1.5
1.8
2.0
1.6
Clones
Fe
EC
ICHECK
LCHECK
UMIRR2015B
1.1
UMDT2015B
1.3
1.2
1.0
0.9
Clones
Zn
LCHECK
ICHECK
EC

18. Seed systems:
Net tunnels,
Animal
feed:
>Silage
tube
>Dual
purpose
varieties
Linking women
groups to
processors:
Linking health, nutrition and
agriculture: Western Kenya
Examples of Delivery Systems
Triple S
(store/sand/sprout

19. Technology impact beyond borders: true seed and
vines:True botanical seed were shared with 19 NARS in Southern-, East
and Central- & West Africa and South East Asia

20. DIFFUSION OF OFSP VINES IN
MOZAMBIQUE: CIP & PARTNERS
Male headed
HH
Female headed
HH
Total direct
beneficiaries
Male headed
HH
Female
headed HH
Total indirect
beneficiaries
OFDA/USAID
Bilateral
97664 52588 150252 195328 105176 300504
OFDA-New 14087 7585 21672 28174 15170 43344
VISTA 27578 9193 36771 55157 18386 73542
NIASSA-OFSP 25559 3485 29044 76676 10456 87132
SUSTAIN 35640 8360 44000 71280 16720 88000
Total ALL 200528 81211 281739 426614 165908 592522
Direct beneficiaries Indirect beneficiaries
December 2011-July 2017
Country Project(s)
MOZ
Proportion of Female Headed Households
Overall Household Reached
Proportion Farmer-based Households Growig OFSP in Moz by July 2017
28%
874261
23%

21. Resilient OFSP. The two crops planted the
first cropping season in Maniquenique
station, Chibuto district, Gaza Province,
October 25, 2016

22. 17 priority
countries,
3 sub-regions
2.9 million
Households
reached by
Sept 2016
12 with
Activity under
SPHI Umbrella

23. How are we Going to Disseminate an OFSP to
Have Impact in the Nutritional State (VAD)?
TSNI Study
(Towards Sustainable Nutritional Improvement)
Find if it is possíble to have
an impact at the level of
uptake of vitamin A and
nutritional status of the
child through the
introduction of OFSP
varieties combined with an
intensive program of
demand creation of food
rich in in vitamin A and to
change food habit in
children under 5 years

24. Access to Improved
Planting Material
Buy more Vitamin-A-Rich
Foods & Health Services
Vitamin A Deficiency & Low Caloric Intake in Young Children
Conceptual Framework
Increase Young Child
Feeding Frequency
Empowerment
Through
Knowledge
Substitute white-
fleshed with
orange fleshed,
beta-carotene
rich varieties
Earn
income from
sales
of roots &
processed
products
Produce more Calories &
Beta-Carotene per hectare
Improved
agronomic
practices to
assure year-
round supply
Effective
feeding
practices
developed via
consultative
research
Media
campaign
to increase
demand for
vitamin A
rich foods
Enhanced
Purchasing
Power
Increase Young Child Intake of Calories & Vitamin A
Improve Young Child Vitamin A Status
Deworming

25. There was significant impact in the adoption of OFSP,
the level of vitamin A consumption & the level of
vitamin A in the body (blood)
§ Median intake of vitamin A was 8 times
higher in the children under intervention when
compared with control
§ OFSP contributed 35% of vitamin A intake
and 6% of energy.
§ Decreased of 15% in the prevalence of
vitamin A deficiency (indicated by low level of
serum retinol)
Low, JW et al., Journal of Nutrition 137: 1320-1327, 2007

26. Demand creation
COMMUNITY THEATER
PROMOTION LINKED TO
COMMERCIALIZATION
IMPORTANT TO INCLUDE MEN
PROCESSED PRODUCTS

27. Visit of USA former Deputy-Secretary of State, Mr.
Thomas R. Nides

29. IMPACT OF OFSP IN MOZAMBIQUE: NUTRITION &
HEALTH ISSUES
▼ About 100,000 women trained on the SP agro-processing and nutrition
messaging During the harvesting season, OFSP consumed 2-3 a week
▼ Overall,score of six (6) and above indicates
adequacy nutrient intake, while below four (<4) is
associatedwith poor dietary diversity, 4-5 is a
medium dietary diversity.Thus, jump from medium
to adequate nutrient intake
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0
Maputo
Gaza
Inhambane
Manica
Sofala
Zambezia
Overall
Endline HDDS (N=283)
Baseline HDDS (N=276)

30. May the Passion continue
Visit
www.sweetpotatoknowledge.org