International Potato Center (CIP) Uganda

The International Potato Center (CIP) was founded in 1971 as a research-for-development organization with a focus on potato, sweetpotato and andean roots and tubers. It delivers innovative science-based solutions to enhance access to affordable nutritious food, foster inclusive sustainable business and employment growth, and drive the climate resilience of root and tuber agri-food systems. Headquartered in Lima, Peru, CIP has a research presence in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

CIP is a CGIAR research center, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services. Its research is carried out by 15 CGIAR centers in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.org

OUR VISION

A healthy, inclusive and resilient world through root and tuber systems.

OUR MISSION

CIP delivers innovative science-based solutions to enhance access to affordable nutritious food, foster inclusive sustainable business and employment growth, and drive climate resilience of root and tuber agri-food systems.

CIP Headquarters Lima

Tel. +511 3496017
Email. Click to email CIP
Address. Avenida La Molina 1895, La Molina
Apartado Postal 1558, Lima, Peru

Nutritional security livelihoods and climate resilience in Africa

MAJOR PROJECTS

SASHA II: Sweetpotato action for security and health in Africa

Investor: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) (2014-19)

In its second phase, SASHA has helped national research programs accelerate the development and dissemination of 46 resilient sweetpotato varieties—37 of them vitamin-A-rich, orange-fleshed varieties—while promoting the crop to farmers and consumers. Genetic gains (increased yields) that took breeders 36 years, can now be achieved in 5 years using improved conventional breeding, and average productivity rates have risen from 10.9 to 18.5 tons/ha under rainfed conditions. Efforts have expanded farmer access to quality planting material, improved farming practices, and created demand through the development of sweetpotato products, vastly expanding its production and consumption in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Ghana.

Development and delivery of biofortified crops at scale

Investor: UK Department for International Development (DFID) (2019–22)

Phase I of the project enabled the scaling of biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) varieties to a targeted 2.3 million farming households with children under five in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Bangladesh, provided nutritional education to 2 million caregivers and facilitated the establishment of sweetpotato businesses and products with annual sales of an estimated USD 890,000. Phase II seeks to scale up the benefits of biofortified sweetpotato more widely and target vulnerable communities more explicitly — building links with large-scale commercial and humanitarian initiatives.

Transforming potato and sweetpotato for food security, nutrition and incomes

Investor: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (2015–18)

By 2018, phase I of the Feed the Future Accelerated Value Chain Development project had enabled the creation of sustainable and productive value chains that enhanced incomes and nutritional outcomes in Kenya. Potato value chain work reached some 46,000 households with productivity-enhancing technologies and support for farmer-marketing institutions; sweetpotato interventions benefitted nearly 70,000 households with children under five with improved OFSP varieties and nutrition education. Phase II expands the work to two neighboring counties, supporting institutional potato sector development planning and improved nutrition outreach, and bringing productivity-enhancing technologies to a further 20,000 smallholder households.

TAAT: Technologies for African agricultural transformation, OFSP compact

Investor: African Development Bank (2018–21)

TAAT aims to build a highly diversified sweetpotato sector that delivers nutritious food to rural and urban populations and provides business opportunities for young people and women. It leverages CIP’s work in 12 African countries to increase OFSP production, improve incomes, generate employment from the sale of fresh OFSP roots and processed products, and expand the use of sweetpotato-foliage-based silage by small- to medium-scale livestock and dairy farmers.

ETHIOPIA

Scaling up orange-fleshed sweetpotato for improved nutrition and food security

Investor: Irish Aid (2013-19)

This project began with the distribution of quality planting material for nutritious sweetpotato varieties and agronomic and nutrition training to nearly 20,000 rural households with young children and women of reproductive age in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ (SNNP) and Tigray regions. It was so successful in improving their vitamin A consumption and food security that phase II sought to institutionalize the approaches in the two regions. Ethiopia’s five main agricultural vocational education colleges incorporated CIP modules into their training courses and sweetpotato recipes have been adopted by 10 government health bureaus as part of their nutritious cooking demonstrations. CIP is currently working with the government on the development of a national potato and sweetpotato strategy to drive impact at scale.

Gender sensitive emergency drought responses

Investor: USAID (2018–20)

This project builds on earlier work to improve the food and nutrition security of at least 21,000 drought-affected farmers in the SNNP and Amhara regions by facilitating production of improved potato and sweetpotato varieties. Teams support farmer training centers and groups with access to irrigation, production and post-harvest technologies, quality planting material, and training in nutrition.

Climate-and nutrition-smart OSFP

Investor: European Union (EU) (2016–21)

The project helps improve the nutrition status of families with young children in the SNNP region with orange-fleshed sweetpotato: a reliable source of vitamin A and energy. It builds the capacity of extension agents to train specialized farmers to produce quality planting material for biofortified sweetpotato varieties and disseminate it to other farmers in their area. By early 2019, the project had reached 33,000 farmers with quality planting material and training enabling them to maximize yields and produce enough for their families and a surplus to market.

Scaling sweetpotato-led interventions to improve food and nutrition security

Investors: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2018-21)

This project was designed to improve the food security and nutrition of households with children under 2 in three districts in Tigray through increased production and consumption of vitamin A-rich sweetpotato as part of efforts to diversify diets. Agronomic and nutrition training, and field days, were organized for 469 agriculture and health bureau staff, and model farmers. Consequently, more than 3,500 women have started growing nutritious sweetpotato to improve household nutrition. Phase II of the project is scaling the approach in two more nearby districts

Seeds for change

Investor: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany (2019–21)

Seeds for change helps farmers adapt to climate change, facilitating the adoption by 60,000 farm households of high-yielding, disease-resistant, climate-smart potatoes in the Amhara, Oromia and SNNP regions.

MOZAMBIQUE

Home to CIP’s breeding platform that has produced 22 drought-resistant OFSP varieties in the last decade, 19 of which vitamin A-rich—a third of sweetpotatoes grown in the country.

Drought mitigation through resilient sweetpotato

Investor: USAID (2017–19)

Having survived droughts that destroyed staple crops, such as maize, this project has disseminated OFSP planting materials to 24,000 poor households in Gaza, Inhambane and Maputo provinces. An earlier EUR 2 million intervention, financed by Irish Aid, improved the vitamin A and energy intake of 44,000 families in Niassa and Inhambane provinces.

MALAWI

Root and tuber crops for agricultural transformation

Investor: Irish Aid (2016–21)

This CIP-led project seeks to help 200,000 households improve nutritional outcomes and incomes through the adoption of cassava, potato and sweetpotato technologies, benefiting one million consumers from the availability of nutritious crops.

Integrated value chains to enhance rural incomes and food security

Investor: EU(2017–20)

This project has reached 3,000 farm households with OFSP planting material, conducted value addition training and home-based food processing to 100 lead farmers. The objective is to help build resilience among the target households through improved food security, incomes and nutrition levels.

KULIMA: Improving use of agricultural innovations

Investor: GIZ (2018–19)

KULIMA promotes enhanced agricultural productivity and diversification through the broad-scale adoption of climatesmart agriculture technologies and improved links to markets.

PROMOTING OFSP IN WEST AFRICA

While sweetpotato is a traditional crop in West Africa, nutritious orange-fleshed varieties were hardly grown in the region before CIP began promoting them. SASHA and BNBF has played a crucial role in developing, deploying and creating demand for biofortified, and later climate-smart, sweetpotato varieties in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria over the past decade.

Nutrition sensitive kitchens

Investor: DFID (2018–19)

The nutrition kitchen incorporates sweetpotato and other vegetables into kitchen garden interventions in Nigeria, benefiting 35,000 households with children under five by 2018.

Root, tuber and banana crop for end-user preferences

Investor: BMGF (2017–22)

Operating in Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, this project helps determine the needs and preferences of men and women farmers for sweetpotato, potato, yam, cassava and banana. Getting this data to crop breeders will ensure future varieties possess the characteristics (disease resistance, taste, etc.) wanted by farmers and consumers, facilitating greater adoption.

Case for investment: Climate change adaptation

Overview

Agriculture is both vulnerable and a major contributor to climate change.
Drought, flooding and rising temperatures associated with climate change will compromise expansion of potato and sweetpotato production.
Potatoes and sweetpotatoes are relatively hardy and rapid-growing crops, and can play a key role in climate-smart agriculture.
Next-generation technologies can be used to develop climate-smart varieties that mature quickly, resist many pests and diseases, and tolerate heat, drought or soil salinity to provide more nutritious food and better incomes in extreme climates.
The International Potato Center (CIP) has also pioneered new agronomic techniques to improve the production of quality planting material.
CIP seeks to accelerate the breeding and adoption of new climate-smart varieties and agronomic technologies.
Investment priorities include:
- Agrobiodiversity conservation, use and evaluation of genetic resources;
- Tools and training for accelerated and demand-driven breeding;
- Enhanced inclusive and equitable seed system development;
- Promotion of climate-smart varieties among consumers and men and women farmers;
- Gender-responsive extension services to support farmers with quality planting material and training with climate-smart farming practices; and
- Improved training and technologies available to farmers, particularly women and other vulnerable groups.

Introduction

Agriculture contributes greatly to livelihoods and food security, yet it is both vulnerable to climate change and a major contributor to greenhouse gas. While food demand is expected to rise by 60% by 2050, every 1°C of warming is projected to cause an estimated 5% reduction in crop productivity. This process of climate warming will impact many factors related to food production, including soil salinization, heat and water stress, interrupted growing seasons, and greater incidence, intensity and distribution of extreme weather events and plant pests and diseases. Between 2005-15, extreme weather events cost developing countries an estimated USD 96 billion in lost agricultural production. Without action, potato yields could fall up to 32% by 2060.

Both potato and sweetpotato, the third and sixth most important food crops globally, have traits that breeders are using to develop climate-resilient varieties. Sweetpotato has greater heat tolerance and requires less rainfall than most staple crops, and drought-tolerant varieties often produce food when other crops wither and die. Early-maturing varieties are ready for harvest in less than four months, and their leaves can be eaten just two months after planting when food is scarce. Sweetpotato contributes to food security and the reduction of vitamin A deficiency, one of the most harmful forms of malnourishment for children under five and women of reproductive age. It can also be a healthy, cheap source of animal feed.

Consumed by over 1 billion people, about a third of potato production is undertaken by smallholder farmers. Early-maturing potato varieties can be ready to harvest three months after planting, providing food when grains are still green. This trait also allows potato to be incorporated into fallow periods of cereal-farming systems, which relieves pressure on scarce land and water resources and contributes to the sustainable intensification and diversification of agri-food systems.

Building blocks

CLIMATE-SMART VARIETIES

Climate-smart varieties Dozens of CIP-bred, climate-smart potato and sweetpotato varieties have been released and are helping farmers cope with increasingly frequent weather extremes. Other varieties are currently in the pre-release phase. In 2011 and 2018, CIP and its partners produced the first reference genomes for potato and sweetpotato, which is allowing scientists to more accurately breed for climate-resilient traits.

Climate-smart potato varieties

Drought- and heat-tolerant Tacna and Unica potato varieties were evaluated in Peru’s coastal desert before being sent to China, where they became national varieties in 2006 and 2011, respectively. Able to grow in saline soils with a fraction of the water most potatoes need, they have enabled potato farming in regions, and seasons, where it is increasingly difficult to produce food. In 2015, both varieties were grown on a total of 250,000 hectares in China. Unica has also enabled farmers in dry regions of Kenya to grow potatoes, and is planted in the lowlands of Tajikistan in the months when it is too warm to grow wheat

Accelerated breeding

Faced with increasing climate change, scientists have accelerated the process of breeding and selecting potential climate-resilient varieties by using advanced genomic tools and simultaneous field trials in varied environments. These breeding tools are rapidly accelerating genetic gains. A proof-of-concept for a sweetpotato hybrid breeding scheme demonstrates that the time needed to achieve genetic gains can be reduced sevenfold. Genomic tools have facilitated development of a late-blight resistant potato in less than 10 years, something which scientists had been unable to achieve using conventional tools in over four decades.

In situ conservation and use of genetic resources

CIP works with communities in the Peruvian highlands to conserve the region’s potato agrobiodiversity in the field and periodically repatriates disease-free native potato varieties safeguarded in its genebank. A new initiative is studying the relationship between climate change, agrobiodiversity, and indigenous health and diets to identify prospects for more resilient agriculture in a changing climate.

Climate-smart seed systems

Access to quality potato or sweetpotato planting material of improved varieties boosts both harvests and the ability of households to adapt to extreme weather events. The development and functioning of climate-smart seed systems are essential in getting resilient varieties to farmers. Work with research institutes, and public and private sector partners has expanded the use of cutting-edge technologies to produce potato and sweetpotato seed, including sandponics, aeroponics and rooted apical cuttings. Nevertheless, there is still a great need for more quality planting material in Africa and Asia.

Surviving drought in Malawi

Loveness Kalira and her family were among the 300,000 households to receive planting material for climate-smart sweetpotato after a devastating drought in 2016 that left 6.5 million Malawians dependent on food aid. The following year, their sweetpotato crop thrived despite another drought that wiped out their maize harvest. Their sales of surplus sweetpotato allowed the Kaliras to purchase enough corn for the year and pay school fees for their four children.

Enhanced agronomic approaches

Scientists have developed and disseminated improved technologies and approaches to help farmers cope with challenges such as prolonged drought or increased pest and disease pressure. An example is the Triple S technique in which farmers store sweetpotatoes in sand during dry months and use them to produce vines for planting when rains resume. The method enables farmers to produce enough vines in time for early planting, which means they can harvest early when food is scarce and market prices are high.

Climate modeling tools

CIP tools support policymaking, priority setting and the deployment of mitigation strategies. Using satellite data to generate reliable long-term climate series, these tools include algorithms to generate rainfall and temperature data needed to model the impact of climate change on agriculture. They have enhanced the precision of crop modeling, yield forecasts, phenotyping and decision support systems. CIP crop management and ecology models have improved monitoring of pest population changes and assessment of late blight disease management scenarios.

Participatory varietal development and selection

Multi-disciplinary teams from CIP identify the varietal needs and preferences of men and women in target populations and work with crop breeders to incorporate those characteristics into climate-smart varieties. By actively soliciting farmer input on desired crop varieties, we can increase the probability that those varieties will be widely adopted.

Heat-tolerant early-maturing potato gains popularity among farmers in India

Potato is predominantly a winter crop in India. However, because it matures in just 90 days and can be planted in agroecologies where few other varieties thrive, the CIP-bred Kufri Lima variety, released in 2018, can be grown in the months between cereal harvests. This allows farmers to increase overall food production, compensating for rice and wheat yield losses due to climate change. Kufri Lima is also resistant to the most important potato viruses, which are aggravated by warming climates. This resistance allows farmers to select seed potatoes from their harvests rather than buying commercial seed potatoes each year.

Case for investment: Nutrition

Overview

Just one small boiled orange-fleshed sweetpotato can provide the daily vitamin A requirement for a young child, reducing the risk of infection, stunting or blindness.
Potato, a staple food in many developing countries, is a good source of zinc, iron, potassium, and vitamin C.
CIP breeders have developed biofortified zinc- and iron-rich potato varieties.
The International Potato Center (CIP) has reached 6.5 million households with biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato to improve vitamin A intake.
Evidence shows an integrated seed distribution and nutrition education approach is effective in improving diets of families at risk of malnutrition.
CIP aims to reach 10 million households in the next five years with nutritious potato and sweetpotato varieties to improve diets.
Investment priorities include:
- breeding climate-resilient, consumer-accepted, biofortified potato and sweetpotato varieties, including varieties with multiple essential nutrients;
- inclusive seed system development to disseminate new varieties;
- gender-responsive nutrition education and behavioural change programs; and
- diversification of inclusive and equitable value chains to expand cultivation and access to nutritious foods in urban markets.

Introduction

Malnutrition presents an urgent development challenge. Zinc, iron and vitamin A deficiencies—essential for healthy growth and development—are among the most debilitating forms of undernutrition, and they disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, including women of childbearing age.

Potatoes and sweetpotatoes can provide important sources of these essential nutrients. Potato is a good source of zinc, iron, protein, potassium and vitamins C and B6, making an important contribution to diets in regions where resource-poor populations have limited access to other foods. Just 100g of boiled, unpeeled potato can provide up to 16% of the recommended daily intake of potassium and 30% of recommended vitamin C intake. Benefits like these are especially important in mountain regions of rural Africa and Latin America, where people eat 300–800g of boiled potatoes a day, accounting for almost 40% of their energy requirements.

While iron concentration in cooked potatoes is lower than in cereals and legumes, its bioavailability—the amount of iron available for use by the body—is proportionally higher than in wheat and beans, in part because vitamin C facilitates iron absorption.

Orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) contains high levels of beta-carotene, which is converted by the body into vitamin A. Just 125g of boiled OFSP can provide the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A for children and women who are not breastfeeding. In addition, OFSP contributes significant amounts of vitamins C, E and several B vitamins, as well as dietary fiber, iron and magnesium. Purple-fleshed varieties, on the other hand, are rich sources of antioxidants. Sweetpotato leaves are also rich in vitamins, beta-carotene, and functional compounds including protein, amino acids and complex carbohydrates.

Potatoes and sweetpotatoes offer cost-effective and sustainable opportunities to supplement diets. Even at low yield levels, a family of five can grow enough OFSP on a 500m2 plot to meet their vitamin A needs, while potatoes contain more protein per unit growing area than alternative staple crops.

Early-maturing improved varieties with elevated levels of essential nutrients can produce nutritious food before rice or wheat are ready for harvest. They can contribute to the diversified diets needed to address “hidden hunger”—a diet sufficient in quantity but lacking in essential micronutrients.

Crop breeders have prioritized the development of more nutritious, climate-resilient potato and sweetpotato varieties with the qualities desired by local growers and consumers—but this is not enough to encourage successful adoption by farmers. Farmers seek varieties that are pest-resistant and drought and heat tolerant, while consumers look at factors such as taste and texture. To meet these demands, CIP collaborates with businesses, model farmers and national agricultural research systems to establish seed systems that guarantee the availability of quality planting materials to farming households.

Building blocks

BREEDING

Over the past 15 years CIP has cut the time needed for developing and releasing new sweetpotato varieties using conventional breeding from eight years to four or five, and new biofortified varieties have been released in at least 22 countries. Progress is also being made towards the goal of producing zinc- and iron-rich sweetpotato, which would be the first biofortified crop to deliver three essential nutrients.

Biofortification increases vitamin and mineral uptake

Substantial evidence supports the benefits of biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato—the result of a breeding process designed to enhance the density of minerals and vitamins. This is crucial for areas like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where more than 40% of children under five suffer from vitamin A deficiency. A study in Mozambique in 2002-04 demonstrated that increased OFSP consumption by children reduced vitamin A deficiency by 15%. Since then, CIP has contributed to the breeding and release of more than 150 OFSP varieties in sub-Saharan Africa alone. A subsequent study in Kenya in 2017 also indicated that nutrition education and increased consumption of OFSP contributed to improvements in the vitamin A status of pregnant and lactating women. It is estimated that replacing white- with orange-fleshed sweetpotato could reduce the burden of vitamin A deficiency by up to 22% in the 17 African countries where the crop is widely grown.

Potato breeding research is taking advantage of the crop’s ability to deliver nutrients to the human body. Over a decade of conventional breeding has resulted in potato clones with 40–80% more iron and zinc than cultivated varieties. Varietal selection is taking place on three continents and preliminary findings from bioavailability studies in Peru indicate that the iron from biofortified potatoes is absorbed at a much higher rate (29%) than that from other biofortified crops such as beans (3–5%) and pearl millet (7–10%). Given consumption levels in the Andean mountains, it is expected that these potatoes would meet more than 50% of the average requirements for iron among women and up to 28% for children.

Farmer adoption/ behavioral change

Two decades ago, few Africans grew OFSP as it was considered as poor people’s food. Today, education and awareness campaigns about the nutritional qualities of OFSP have successfully contributed to their increased production and consumption. In a 10-month pilot initiative in Kenya, community health workers provided nutrition advice to new and expectant mothers along with vouchers for OFSP planting material. When CIP researchers returned to the area a year later, 75% of the families who received both the nutrition advice and OFSP vouchers were growing those new varieties. Embedding nutrition education into interventions and enhancing access to OFSP varieties proved effective. Promotional activities through public health services have improved maternal health-seeking behavior, nutrition knowledge, dietary vitamin A intakes, and vitamin A levels.

Scaling up sweetpotato through agriculture and nutrition

A six-year GBP 18.4 million project, launched in 2013 by CIP and 20 partners, used a two-pronged approach in providing farming families with OFSP planting material and nutrition education on the benefits of the crop. The project reached more than 2.3 million households with children under five across Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Tanzania. As a result, approximately 1.3 million women and children regularly ate OFSP, when available, putting them at lower risk of vitamin A deficiency and its health consequences.

Market development

Successful market development has played an important role in expanding consumption of pro-vitamin-A sweetpotato in Africa. CIP scientists developed and disseminated a method to produce vacuum-packed sweetpotato puree – with a shelf life of three-to-six months–that can be used to make varied baked or fried products. The puree can be substituted for 45 percent of the wheat flour in bread, reducing production costs and resulting in a more nutritious product. The sale of sweetpotato bread in various African countries has increased the amount of vitamin A in consumers’ diets, spawned new value chains from farmers to retailers, and created income opportunities for women and young people.

Sweetpotato bread takes off in Kenya

The production of shelf-stable, orange-fleshed sweetpotato puree by two Kenyan companies has enabled large bakeries to sell nutritious sweetpotato bread and other products, since they now have a year-round supply of that ingredient. Kenya’s two largest supermarket chains, Tuskys and Naivas, sell thousands of loaves of sweetpotato bread and buns each day at dozens of stores. They charge slightly more for the sweetpotato breads, annual sales of which are about USD 1 million. Two slices provide about 10% of the daily vitamin A requirement of an adult, whereas growing demand for orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes by puree producers is motivating more farming families to grow and eat the crop.