Improving nutrition using orange flesh sweet potatoes

Carolyn has always been a farmer but turned to growing the orange flesh sweet potato (OFSP) after joining VCDP, when she learned about its nutritional value and many health benefits. She has never looked back. Today, the OFSP provides Carolyn with her main source of income. VCDP taught Carolyn best practices for cultivating OFSP, and to understand its nutritional benefits. The variety, which is rich in minerals such as calcium, phosphorus and iron, is good for pregnant women, diabetics, and for combating vitamin A deficiency in children. It can be eaten in almost every form and manner with the waste serving as animal feed.

“When I saw how VCDP spreads knowledge, I decided that’s what I wanted to do, too. I started going around to schools and churches to share the knowledge I have gained. It has made me so happy – especially when I see how young people who might have been out on the streets and frustrated are now growing and selling sweet potatoes.”

Carolyn learned how to process OFSP as value-added products. The bread she bakes with sweet potato flour is in high demand. And she and family members also produce snacks, drinks and even garri made from the potato, all of which she sells in her shop. Carolyn boasts that with the money she earns, life is far less burdensome. Although Carolyn expresses her joy, she has also experienced great sorrow. In 2022, inter-tribal animosities ignited in her village; her workshop burned with all her production equipment in it. “But I refused to just close my eyes and sleep. Because I know what I can get from the OFSP, I believe I will rise again.”