Scaling Up Sweetpotato through Agriculture and Nutrition (SUSTAIN) in Rwanda

The SUSTAIN project aims to reach at least 60,000 direct smallholder beneficiaries and 250,000 indirect beneficiaries in four districts in Rwanda by 2018 with improved varieties and appropriate nutrition information and counseling for caregivers of infants and young children. This flyer outlines the progress made towards this objective between June 2014 to July 2015

Rwanda Sweetpotato Super Foods Market Chains that work for women and for the poor.

This flyer outlines the findings of the Rwanda Sweetpotato Super Foods Project, which sought to build an effective public-private sector partnership, and to investigate whether sweetpotato processed products are profitable and acceptable to urban consumers. The project was implemented in four districts in Rwanda (Rulindo, Gakenke, Muhanga and Kamonyi)

Consumer perceptions and demand for biofortified sweet potato-based biscuit: The case of Akarabo golden power biscuit in Rwanda

Certain varieties of sweet potato, especially orange-fleshed, are being promoted as part of the strategy to combat vitamin A deficiency in children and pregnant mothers. However, the consumption of sweet potato is more widespread in rural households where it is mainly boiled or eaten raw. The lack of value addition excludes majority of urban and higher income consumers who consider sweet potato an inferior product. At the same time low income urban households that would be interested in consuming sweet potatoes are not able to receive regular supplies from the rural producing areas due to perishability and bulkiness of the produce. This study examines consumer perceptions and demand for value-added biofortified biscuit derived from the vitamin A-rich orange fleshed sweet potato in Rwanda. Specifically, it assesses consumer perceptions and preference for biofortified biscuit, consumer willingness to pay for biofortified biscuit and consumers’ rating of the biofortified biscuit. It uses data from 1085 consumers stratified by income levels drawn from consumers in several urban markets of Rwanda. The study finds very favorable rating of the taste, color, packaging, looks, and sweetness for the biofortified biscuit. It also finds higher willingness to pay (WTP) for the biofortified biscuit among consumers from low and low/middle income groups. However, the study finds mixed results of WTP for the biofortifed sweet potato among consumers in the high income neigborhoods. Also, contrary to expectations, the study finds no evidence that knowledge of vitamin A increases consumer rating for the biofortified biscuit, suggesting that the promotion campaigns did not change the way consumers perceive the biofortified sweet potato, perhaps due to the way the campaign was designed. The study concludes that the biofortified biscuit is currently more acceptable among the low and low/middle end income categories probably because of greater promotion at these levels. However, it has a high potential for the high amd medium income groups as evident from the high rating it received among these groups. The paper discusses the implications of these findings and suggests a need for more detailed studies and indepth quantitative analysis of consumer perceptions and WTP for orange-fleshed sweet potato.Key words: Consumers, demand, biofortified biscuits, Rwand

Popular orange-fleshed sweetpotato products in Rwanda: Biscuits and doughnuts

Golden Power Biscuits and mandazi (fried doughnuts) have emerged as the top products made with freshly prepared orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) puree at Urwibutso Enterprises. This flyer shares the process and recipe or preparing these popular products

Farmers’ perceptions of orange-fleshed sweetpotato: Do common beliefs about sweetpotato production and consumption really matter?

Efforts to combat vitamin A deficiency in developing countries have focused on the promotion of growing and consuming orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP), among other crops. Past studies have found increased intake and even incomes among households that have been reached with information about nutritional benefits of OFSP. Consequently, efforts to scale up the production and consumption of OFSP are on-going in several African countries where vitamin A deficiency is a major problem. However, to date, few studies have systematically examined farmers’ perceptions and attitudes towards some of the attributes of OFSP. This paper interrogates some of the beliefs about the production and consumption of sweetpotato in general, and OFSP, in particular. It uses data generated using multi-stage sampling technique and involving 732 households in the Lake zone of Tanzania. The households were stratified into project participants (the intervention group) and non-participants (the control group). Within each household, data were collected from a male or female adult member (usually spouses) through personal interviews. Overall, 455 project participants and 277 non-participants were interviewed. This study uses both descriptive and exploratory factor analysis to assess some common beliefs about sweetpotato production and consumption. Contrary to the common beliefs, the study finds that sweetpotato is an important food crop to producing households, and that the common negative beliefs about sweetpotato production and consumption are not widely held. This study, therefore, recommends the need to upscale and out-scale efforts to sensitize farmers about the nutritional benefits of growing and consuming OFSP to counter the common negative beliefs about sweetpotato. In particular, educating farmers on the health effects of inadequate intake of Vitamin A and the importance of OFSP as its source can greatly influence their perceptions about OFSP. Further, there is need to increase efforts at breeding aimed at supplying the multiple desirable table and postharvest attributes of orange-fleshed sweetpotato, in addition to focusing on agronomic traits. For sub-Saharan Africa, such attributes include taste, storability of the tubers, dry matter content, and sugar content.Keywords: Sweetpotato, attributes, nutritional benefits, common beliefs, farmer perceptions, Tanzani