Zimbabwe Launches Biofortified Sweet Potato Variety

By Tanyaradzwa Mutizwa

Zimbabwe recently launched a new variety of sweet potato set to improve the nutrition in the country.

The Department of Research and Specialist Services (DR&SS) under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Resettlement supported by FAO under the Zimbabwe Livelihoods and Food Security Programme (LSFP), with funding from Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), partnered with Harvest Plus to promote the increased production of Vitamin A rich orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties by smallholder farmers.

The orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are packed with beta-carotene, a nutrient that is readily converted into Vitamin A by the human body. A serving of 150 gram of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato(OFSP) can meet a five-year-old child’s daily requirement of Vitamin A. In addition to being highly nutritious, OFSPs are palatable, adapts very well to harsh climate conditions and are easy to manage.

To fight hidden hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition as spelt out in SDG 2 and attain the upper-middle-income economy status by 2030.  Zimbabwe has added OFSP to its biofortified crop basket, which already contained Vitamin A maize, iron and zinc fortified sugar beans.

FAO Subregional Coordinator for Southern Africa, Dr Patrice Talla, while addressing stakeholders, encouraged them to make the jump towards the inclusion of orange-fleshed sweet potato in the basket of safe and nutritious foods.

“FAO acknowledges the consumption of biofortified crops alone is not adequate to address the hidden hunger fully. As such, our priority as an organization is to ensure that every person has reliable, year-round access to diverse, safe, nutritious foods and diets, aligned with environmental sustainability,” he said.

Speaking during the launch in Harare, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Resettlement permanent secretary Dr John Bhasera said the ministry would continue to improve the production of high nutritional crops.

“The ministry, through the Presidential Rural Horticulture Growth Plan, is targeting to distribute virus-free sweet potatoes planting material to increase productivity. In addition, the ministry will include biofortified orange-fleshed varieties in this initiative to increase nutrition security at 35 000 ward-based nutrition gardens that will be established over the next 5years,” he said.

Head Agronomy Research Institute at DR&SS, Mazvita Chiduwa, said the country imported six OSP varieties from the International Potato Centre (CIP) in Mozambique with support from FAO and Harvest Plus for extensive testing and accelerated release. A researcher managed on station trials, and farmers managed on farm participatory evaluation trials was then carried out.

“From the results, we were able to identify the most farmer preferred varieties in the county, both in terms of the performance and taste. The orange-fleshed sweet potatoes turned out to be more nutritious and higher-yielding and much tastier, at least from the perspective of the farmers and their children. These orange-fleshed sweet potatoes can have huge nutritional benefits while generating revenue for small scale farmers,” she said.

In Zimbabwe, nearly one of every four children is stunted, with an estimated 19 per cent of children under five years and 23 per cent of women childbearing age (WCBA) with Vitamin A deficiency 37 per cent of children and 27 per cent women are anaemic. Insufficient intake of Vitamin A rich foods, poor absorption of Vitamin A rich or loss due to illness are regarded as the significant causes of Vitamin A deficiency(VAD).

 The author is a CCARDESA media correspondent based in Zimbabwe