13 research outputs found
The Potato of the Future: Opportunities and Challenges in Sustainable Agri-food Systems
In the coming decades, feeding the expanded global population nutritiously and sustainably will require substantial improvements to the global food system worldwide. The main challenge will be how to produce more food with the same or fewer resources and waste less. Food security has four dimenespecially the case in Africa wheresions: food availability, food access, food use and quality, and food stability. Among several other food sources, the potato crop is one that can help match all these constraints worldwide due to its highly diverse distribution pattern, and its current cultivation and demand, particularly in developing countries with high levels of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. After an overview of the current situation of global hunger, food security, and agricultural growth, followed by a review of the importance of the potato in the current global food system and its role played as a food security crop, this paper analyses and discusses how potato research and innovation can contribute to sustainable agri-food systems comparing rural and industrial agri-food systems with reference to food security indicators. It concludes with a discussion about the challenges for sustainable potato cropping enhancement considering the needs to increase productivity in rural-based potato food systems that predominate in low-income countries, while promoting better resource management and optimization in industrial-based agri-food systems considering factors such as quality, diversity of products, health impacts, and climate change effects. Research and innovation options and policies that could facilitate the requirements of both rural and industrial potato-based agri-food systems are described
Correction to: The Potato of the Future: Opportunities and Challenges in Sustainable Agri-Food Systems
The original version of the article unfortunately contained an error.
In line 4 of the abstract, it appears that by mistake a few words were added in the middle of another sentence - "especially the case in Africa where".
The correct sentence is: Food security has four dimensions: food availability, food access, food use and quality, and food stability
Quality and psychosocial factors influencing purchase of orangeâfleshed sweet potato bread
This 2018 study, conducted in six Tusky's supermarkets in Nairobi, Kenya, combined the JustâAboutâRight, Penalty and MeanâEndâChain analyses to examine the quality and psychosocial factors influencing the purchase of a novel bread made from orangeâfleshed sweet potato (OFSP), a biofortified crop, focusing on sixtyâone male and eighty female urban OFSP bread buyers recruited at point of purchase. It finds that sensory and psychosocial factors drive purchasing decisions and that some of the bread's sensory characteristics are misaligned with consumers' expectations. It also finds that women and menâs evaluations of the bread's characteristics are different, as are their motivations for purchase. However, good sensory attributes and the knowledge of the bread's nutritional value were key drivers. Some misaligned characteristics reveal levers for the reformulation of the bread and present opportunities for segmenting the market. Several other implications of the findings for policy and future improvement of the bread are discussed
Farmersâ demand for quality and nutritionally enhanced sweetpotato planting material: Evidence from experimental auctions in Rwanda
Most farmers source sweetpotato vines from neighboring farmers or from cuttings taken from
their own plots during the previous season. In the absence of âcleanâ vines prepared with more
attentive production practices, farmer-to-farmer vine exchanges and own-saved vines tends to
encourage the accumulation of pests and diseases that ultimately affect yields. In addition, the
perishability and bulkiness of its primary propagation material â vines â there is relatively little
articulated demand for vines through either market or non-market exchanges. In addition,
demand for nutritionally rich variety and biofortified crop orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) is
limited because of multiple factors including farmersâ unfamiliarity with the product and its
novel attributes such as its high beta carotene content, the search costs incurred in locating the
product, and information asymmetries between buyer and seller about the quality and
performance of the product. We investigate demand for quality vine and nutritional attribute of
the crop using a second price experimental auction approach by determine the premium price
farmers are willing to pay for these attributes and investigate drivers of demand. In the absence
of information on the source of vines, maturity and resistance to diseases, farmers are willing to
pay a premium of about 35 Rwandan Francs for high quality vines sourced from decentralized
vine multipliers. However, on provision of information on the source of vines, maturity and
resistance to diseases of the vines, the premium price increases significantly to 133.71 Rwandan
francs and to 107.22 Rwandan Francs after provision of visual information depicting the
performance of the vines in demonstration plots. The premium price also increases significantly
for vines sourced from neighbors to about 74.35 Rwandan francs, which further increases to
151.53 Rwandan francs when nutrition information is provided to the farmers. The study also
revealed that demand for high quality vines is correlated with sex of household head, sex of the
respondent, age of the respondent in years, household size, membership in a farmer
organization, information from neighbors/other farmers, access to marshland, females make
agriculture decisions in the household among other factors. In terms of policy, there is need to
promote importance of quality vine and nutritional value of OFSP through sensitization on the
field demonstration and nutritional values