Tagged Sweet potato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA), the project, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will be implemented in eight African countries — Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi and Ghana.

The center said in a statement on Thursday in Abuja that 1 million farming families in sub-Saharan Africa would benefit.

“Melinda and I believe that helping the poorest smallholder farmers grow more sweet potato and get it to the market is the world’s single most powerful lever for reducing hunger and poverty,” Bill Gates was quoted as saying by the statement.

The statement said that sweet potato was the third most important food crop in East Africa in terms of production and the fourth most important in Southern Africa.

“This project will improve the food security, nutrition and livelihoods of at least 150,000 families directly, with an indirect impact on one million families in sub-Saharan Africa in five years and the creation of conditions to reach 10 million households in 10 years,” Dr. Pamela K. Anderson, the Director-General of the International Potato Centre explained in the statement.

The project will establish three regional support centers to be based in leading national research centers in Ghana, Uganda, and Mozambique to strengthen national potato breeding skills and capacity.

It will also promote the commonly grown white-fleshed sweet potato varieties as well as the orange-fleshed varieties of the sweet potato that are rich in pro-vitamin A.

Orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties can significantly lessen Vitamin A deficiency that threatens an estimated 43 million children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa.

Vitamin A deficiency contributes to high rates of blindness, disease and premature death in children and pregnant women.

Source African Press Agency

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