Sweetpotato Week at ILRI (13-17 February 2017)

Facts about Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotato (OFSP)

Origin

• Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) belongs to the morning-glory family.

• Sweetpotato is a storage root, NOT a tuber.

• Originated from Latin America.

• China is the top sweetpotato producer.

• Uganda is the top producer in Sub-Saharan Africa

• A range of skin/ flesh color white, cream, yellow, orange, and deep purple

Importance of OFSP

• Source of beta-carotene, the

precursor to Vitamin A.

• 125g of OFSP roots contain

enough beta-carotene to

provide the daily pro-vitamin

A needs of a preschooler.

• A valuable source of vitamins

B, C, and E, and contain

moderate levels of iron and

zinc.

• A healthy, cheap source of

protein for use as animal

feed.

‘Let Food be Thy Medicine’: 2016 World Food Prize

• CIP and Harvestplus set out to prove that the local people in Sub-Saharan Africa

would accept biofortified OFSP into their diets, that vitamin A deficiency could be

prevented by eating it, and that countries would adopt it.

• Meet Drs. Maria Andrade, Jan Low and Robert Mwanga (2016 World Food

Prize Laureates) during this week’s Friday Morning Coffee (FMC) – 17 Feb 2017

The International Potato Center (known by its Spanish acronym CIP) is

a research-for-development organization with a focus on potato, sweetpotato,

and Andean roots and tubers. CIP is dedicated to delivering sustainable

science-based solutions to the pressing world issues of hunger, poverty,

gender equity, climate change and the preservation of our Earth’s fragile

biodiversity and natural resources.

www.cipotato.org

CIP is a member of CGIAR

CGIAR is a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future. Its

science is carried out by the 15 research centers who are members of the

CGIAR Consortium in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations.

www.cgiar.org