The Humble, Lovable Sweet Potato

The Challenge

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) affects 190 million preschool children and 19 million pregnant women around the world, with regions in Africa and South-East Asia being affected the most. In Zambia, like many developing countries, vitamin A deficiency largely affects pre-school children, pregnant and lactating mothers, and the rural poor. In 2015, a national micronutrient survey indicated a vitamin A deficiency prevalence of 54% among children under five. For these children, a lack of vitamin A causes severe visual impairment and blindness. In addition, the deficiency significantly increases the risk of severe illness, and even death, from common childhood infections. For pregnant women, vitamin A deficiency can result in night blindness and can increase the risk of maternal mortality.

For more on Vitamin A deficiency, check out the WHO’s report on micronutrient deficiencies here.

Food fortification and dietary diversification have all been employed in various forms to provide vitamin A supplementation.  Unfortunately, these strategies have been prohibitively expensive, not so much in the production of the supplements, but in their delivery to rural areas.

The Approach

Sweet potatoes are a relatively low priced crop and one of the staple foods in Zambia. In introducing a variety of sweet potato that is significantly higher in β-carotene, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas L. La, OFSP), into the typical diet, it’s possible to increase the bio-availability of different micro-nutrients such as Fe, Zn, Ca and Mg and to reduce vitamin A deficiency.  This introduction has the potential in reducing child mortality rates by 23 to 30%.

My Role

Partnered with NGOs and community women’s groups, farmer cooperatives, and community leaders, I organized 11 separate orange-fleshed sweet potato workshops to introduce families and farmers to this crop, demonstrate and share recipes, and provide the root stock for planting their own orange-fleshed sweet potato crop.