Publications /  Annual Report 1999

In sub-Saharan Africa, 3 million children under age five suffer blindness caused by lack of vitamin A. Vitamin A is produced by the body when it has sufficient quantities of a precursor known as "beta-carotene." When it doesn’t, the body can not produce sufficient vitamin A, and blindness can result. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that women with vitamin A deficiency face a significantly higher risk of death during pregnancy. And children are more subject to falling victim to other diseases if they don’t have enough of this critical vitamin.

World development agencies have reacted to this serious health crisis by distributing vitamin A capsules and fortifying food. The results have been impressive—more than 12 million children received vitamin A supplements in 1997, and the number of children suffering from blindness related to vitamin A deficiency has dropped significantly.

In spite of these heroic efforts, many families do not have access to the supplements. They live in remote areas where the infrastructure for wholesale distribution doesn’t exist and are subject to further isolation from floods, landslides, and earthquakes, among other things. Transportation is sporadic, and it may take days to reach the nearest village.

CIP and its partner organizations have taken a different but complementary approach to fight vitamin A deficiency: the promotion of orange-flesh sweetpotato growth and consumption (see Hagenimana et al. in Selected Publications, p. 19) Orange-flesh sweetpotatoes contain high amounts of beta-carotene, which is largely responsible for the orange color of the flesh. This approach complements the development agencies’ supplement/fortification approach; is accessible to isolated, small rural communities; and—most important—can sustain itself over time once it is implemented.

Recent studies involving CIP, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) have shown that—contrary to past beliefs—orange-flesh varieties are acceptable to African consumers, especially children. The age-old preference of Africans for white-flesh sweetpotatoes is now known to be more related to the texture (dry and starchy) than to the color. Orange-flesh sweetpotatoes with a drier, starchier texture have now been developed that are appealing to local consumers in vitamin-A deficient areas and can be used for a variety of home- or community-produced local products, including cookies, cereals, rolls, and flour.

Building on this new knowledge, CIP, ICRW, KARI, Makerere University-Uganda, NARO-Uganda (National Agricultural Research Organization), and EARO (Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization) are developing a regional project to take advantage of sweetpotato’s nutritional value. This ambitious five-year project—called VITAA—aims to:

* increase the availability and acceptability of orange-flesh sweetpotatoes in sub-Saharan Africa
* complement development agencies’ supplementation/fortification efforts
* increase the capacity of national agriculture, health, and nutrition experts to incorporate sweetpotatoes in their recommendations
* stimulate and promote microenterprise development using products from orange-flesh sweetpotatoes
* teach household managers (women and children) the nutritional value and effects of consuming orange-flesh sweetpotatoes and encourage them to analyze their household’s nutrition.

Above all, the main objective of this project is to ensure that—by the end of the five-year project period—no child with access to the simple and common sweetpotato will ever suffer blindness or disease caused by vitamin A deficiency.