BY EPHREM ANDARGACHEW
Sweet potato is an essential food security crop for millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Farmers predominantly grow sweet potatoes for human food consumption and animal feed. They produce carbohydrate-rich storage roots with a substantial amount of vitamins A, B complex, C, and E, as well as minerals including calcium, potassium, and iron.
Ethiopia is one of the largest sweet potato producing countries in the world and the farmers produce a variety of sweet potatoes since the highest diversity was found in the country. Despite ecological disparities, sweet potatoes broadly grow in the south, southwestern and eastern parts of the country by small-scale farmers.
Sweet potatoes are produced across the country overcoming various challenges including scarcity of land, labor and capital. According to Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency (CSA) 2014/2015 survey report, lack of improved variety, low yielding, disease-resistant and good quality seed potato varieties are major challenges that potato-producing farmers have been facing.
Hence, the provision of quality and improved sweet potato variety seeds are generally taken as essential measures to increase production and productivity throughout the country. The government, taking the challenges into account, has given due attention to the improvement and distribution of sweet potatoes.
Haramaya University Research and Extension and Publication Director Dr. Chanyalew Seyoum said that sweet potatoes have many uses and benefits in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, their yield in many areas of the country is below the potential due to drought, heat, and low soil fertility. Therefore, the government encourages higher institutions to conduct research that improves sweet potato seeds for better results and yields.
As a result, Universities have been working with local and international higher institutions, NGOs, farmers’ unions, and cooperatives to improve sweet potatoes. Haramaya University has been also working with International Potato Center to improve the sweet potatoes that are planted across the country.
Accordingly, better results have been registered in improving sweet potatoes. Even the areas of East and South Hararge, which did not plant sweet potatoes before, are able to grow sweet potatoes which can alleviate food shortages caused by a frequent shortage of rain in the region. Apart from improving food security, planting sweet potatoes support the farmers in increasing their household income.
Shamil Alo Sora (2021) academic article entitled “Evaluation of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea Batatas (L) Lam) Varieties at Tepi, Southwestern Ethiopia” stated that sweet potato is one of the most significant root and tuber crops that has food and feed value. It is also recognized as the best crop not only ensuring food security but also has a high potential for increasing household income, and poverty reduction. Besides, the production of sweet potatoes is significant to ensure higher yields, better income, secure nutritional value, and enhanced livelihoods in the country.
Indeed, producing sweet potatoes have a wide range of use and benefits such as being chipped and milled into flour for making snakes, baby foods, and boiled and eaten as food for families. But the country produces sweet potatoes that are white-fleshed which are poor yielding and vitamin deficient. Besides, white-fleshed sweet potatoes have low quality and nutritional values.
Hence, Haramaya University has been collaborating with stakeholders and the concerned bodies to provide Orange-flesh sweet potatoes (OFSP) variety that has better quality and nutritional values than white-fleshed sweet potatoes.
As stated by Dr. Chanyalew, Orange-flesh sweet potato, unlike white-fleshed sweet potatoes, is rich in pro-vitamin A. It is also proved that it contributes to normal eyesight, healthy skin and mucous membranes, healthy cell growth, reproduction, and immunity to diseases such as malaria, measles, and respiratory diseases.
Moreover, Orange-fleshed sweet potato is a special type of biofortified sweet potato that holds high levels of beta-carotene. Beta-Carotene is an organic, red-orange pigment plentiful in plants and fruits. Apart from being rich in vitamin A, orange-fleshed sweet potato is climate-and nutrition-smart corps. In addition to providing a valuable source of energy, orange-fleshed sweet potato is an ideal staple to grow in densely populated and drought-prone communities.
Furthermore, beta-carotene is what gives Orange-fleshed sweet potato an orange color and is changed to Vitamin A in the body after consumption to provide additional nutritional benefits. Bio fortification boosts the nutritional value of staple food crops by increasing the density of vitamins and minerals in a crop through either conventional plant breeding, agronomic practices, or biotechnology. Examples of these vitamins and minerals that can be increased through bio fortification include pro-vitamin A Carotenoids, zinc, and iron.
In addition to the provision of Orange-flesh sweet potato to users either by selling at a lower cost or for free, the university, to meet the demands of society, also provides more than 1.5 cut sweet potato seeds to farmers via Tony Farm center that is located in Dire Dawa City Administration, Dr. Chanyalew elucidated.
Apart from providing Orange-flesh sweet potato and improved seed to the farmers, the university has been doing various activities that will put the youth to work. In particular, the youth were given training that enable them to create jobs by preparing Orange-flesh sweet potato not only to be boiled and eaten but also to be served in bread, juice, cookies, injera, and so on. Such training should be strengthened to make the result of the improved seeds accessible not only to farmers but to all sections of society, he stressed.
Sweet potato especially, Orange fleshed sweet potato is important for fighting the Vitamin A deficiency problem which is taken as a public health challenge in Ethiopia. It is also imperative for pregnant women and children, particularly the Orange fleshed type, which produces storage-carotene, roots precursor rich in Vitamin A. Consequently, Orange fleshed sweet potato is a promising crop variety to solve the Vitamin A deficiency that is required by women and children to avoid malnutrition.
In fact, agriculture is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy, contributing over 43 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), generating around 85 percent of export income, and creating about 86 percent of the population. Ethiopia has highly diversified agro ecological environments which are suitable for the production of numerous varieties of fruit and vegetables including sweet potatoes.
Therefore, the government and concerned bodies should work to modernize and increase the production of sweet potatoes since it is necessary to transform the agricultural sector, expand job opportunities, ensure food security, support the health sector by providing Vitamin and so on. In particular, it is very important to create awareness to make society consume Orange-flesh sweet potato every day instead of consuming it only in times of drought and crisis.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 11 JANUARY 2023
