Gates Foundation grant to disseminate biofortified sweetpotato


HarvestPlus has received a US$ 6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to introduce a nutritionally improved staple food -orange-fleshed sweetpotato- into the diets of the undernourished in East Africa.

The grant will significantly advance HarvestPlus? efforts to grow and distribute high vitamin A sweetpotato and communicate their health benefits widely among the poor.

?Agriculture can be a tool for public health, although developing new technology is only half of the solution. The other half lies in effectively getting biofortified foods to the undernourished,? said Howdy Bouis, Director of HarvestPlus.  ?With the Gates Foundation?s assistance, we will be able to significantly advance our efforts to disseminate high vitamin A sweetpotato developed by the International Potato Center (CIP) and African partners much sooner than expected.?

Originating in the Americas, orange sweetpotato is rich in beta-carotene, an essential building block of vitamin A.  However, the crop is not widely grown or consumed in East Africa, where white sweetpotato is preferred.  Since the mid-1990s, CIP has been breeding sweetpotato varieties that are rich in beta-carotene and match local growing conditions and cooking preferences, but that was only part of what was needed.  ?The Gates Foundation grant will allow HarvestPlus, CIP, and other partners to improve our understanding of markets and how to shift consumer preferences in order to more effectively reach end-users with biofortified sweetpotato and enhance our impact on reducing child and maternal mortality,? said Pamela Anderson, Director General of CIP.

HarvestPlus will apply the Gates Foundation grant in pilot areas throughout East Africa, including Uganda where vitamin-A deficiency affects 38 percent of all children, and in Mozambique where the proportion is even higher at 68 percent.

More than 500,000 children are blind because of vitamin A deficiency and many more suffer from weakened immune systems due to a lack of this essential nutrient, according to World Health Organization estimates. Vitamin A deficiency has been shown to increase child mortality by 23 percent.

HarvestPlus is a Challenge Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). It was launched in November of 2003, and is coordinated by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).  ?New agricultural technologies require champions to insure their successful implementation.  In order to deliver biofortified foods to undernourished consumers, HarvestPlus will need to engage all enablers, from policy makers and technology diffusers, to household decision makers and consumers,? said Francisco Reifschneider, Executive Director of the CGIAR.

?Once again, we are extremely grateful to the Gates Foundation for supporting the vital work of HarvestPlus to reduce hunger in the developing world. This new grant will enable us to make our first attempt at disseminating biofortified crops to those in need,? said Reifschneider.