News and Events

HarvestPlus Receives $US 6 Million Sweetpotato Grant

Fact Sheet: Sweetpotato

• More than 133 million tons of sweetpotato are produced globally each year, with over 95 percent of this production occurring in more than 100 developing countries.
• In developing countries, sweetpotato ranks as the fifth most important food crop after rice, wheat, maize, and cassava.
• White-fleshed sweetpotato is traditionally grown in Sub-Saharan Africa, but contains little or no beta-carotene (a precursor of vitamin A). However, orange-fleshed varieties, indigenous to the West and not widely grown in Africa, offer one of the highest sources of naturally occurring beta-carotene.
• The International Potato Center and HarvestPlus have partnered to develop orange-fleshed varieties that accommodate the tastes of African consumers and provide the least expensive year-round source of dietary vitamin A available.
• African farmers grow about 7 million tons of sweetpotato annually, and most of it is cultivated for human consumption.
• In the densely populated, semi-arid plains of eastern Africa, sweetpotato is called cilera abana, or "protector of the children." This title alludes to the vital role it fulfills in thousands of villages, where people depend on the crop to combat hunger.
• Sweetpotato is rich in carbohydrates and vitamin A and can produce more edible energy per hectare per day than wheat, rice or cassava. It has an abundance of uses ranging from consumption of fresh roots or leaves to processing into starch and flour.
• Research shows that including even small amounts of the new sweetpotato varieties in diets can eliminate vitamin A deficiencies in both children and adults.