VOLUNTARY ACTION FOR DEVELOPMENT (VAD)
MPIGI – UGANDA – EAST AFRICA
P.O. BOX 143, BUWAMA, Tel. +256701108570 / +256772-406465 E-mail:
[email protected]
PROJECT TITLE: IMPROVING WOMEN’S LIVELIHOOD IN MPIGI AND GOMBA
DISTRICTS
THROUGH
PROMOTING
SWEETPOTATO
TECHNOLOGIES
The project rationale
Sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) is an important food crop in Uganda. It is an important food
security crop and a ready source of income. Sweet potato is the second most important starchy
root crop in Uganda and is second to cassava. It is grown in several agro-ecological zones and
plays significant roles in the farming and food systems. sweet potato matures in 4-5 months,
stores well in the soil as a famine reserve crop, has high productivity per unit area and performs
relatively well in marginal soils, which makes it an ideal crop for food security. The crop also
appeals to low income earners because it offers a cheap source of food calories and can be used as a cash
crop as well. Sweet potato has been reckoned as the crop that can beet climate change (Africa News blog,
2009).
However, most of the sweet potato varieties currently grown by farmers are low yielding.
National yields average is 5 tons per hectare although on-farm research in some locations with
improved varieties have recorded between 15-35 tons per hectare, usually with no inputs other
than labor. Nutritional self-sufficiency in Vitamin A can also be cheaply achieved by increased
production and consumption of beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) rich foods like yellow/orange fleshed
sweet potatoes. Regular intake of orange/yellow-fleshed sweet potato roots having a moderate betacarotene concentration of 3 mg/100 grams on a fresh weight basis provides the recommended daily
amount of Vitamin A for children.
A challenge for research and extension work is therefore to help farmers increase sweet potato
yields and consumption. Under all growing conditions significant increases in productivity and
consumption could be made by growing improved varieties. Improved superior sweet potato
genotypes that are high yielding, early maturing, and drought tolerant and contain high levels of
β-Carotene a precursor of Vitamin A have been identified and developed by the National
Agricultural Research organization (NARO). Their dissemination would greatly help to contain
the rampant food shortage, promote good health and to generate incomes for sweetpotato farmers
in Mpigi district. This project is being proposed to promote elite sweet potato varieties and sweet
potato production technologies in Mpigi district. The district suffers from acute poverty, food
shortage and has very high prevalence levels of vitamin A malnutrition.
In Mpigi district, sweet potato is considered to be a women’s’ crop and women are responsible
for the nutrition/feeding of their families. Therefore, farmer’s groups with the majority members
as women will be selected to participate in this project. At the end of the project it is expected
that: elite sweet potato varieties adapted to Mpigi, and acceptable to growers and consumers
would have been identified and promoted; production, and consumption of improved sweet
potato varieties some of them rich in vitamin A will increase in the house holds; women group’s
members will have acquired sweet potato production and processing technologies. The plasticity
of sweet potato to environmental regimes and high yield per unit area and time makes it the best
crop for food and nutrition security in the face of changing environments. Sweetpotato is a high
priority commodity in the research and development agenda of the national agricultural research
program in Uganda.
VAD proposes to implement a two year project focusing on production of improved Orange
fleshed Sweetpotato varieties for both household food consumption and income generation
among 300 smallholder farmers 80% of who are women.
Key objectives
The key objectives of the project are:
i)
To promote elite sweet potato varieties in the different agro ecologies of Mpigi district.
ii)
To promote adoption of production technologies for enhancing sweet potato yields
iii)
To popularize simple processing of the sweetpotato to dried chips with a view of
targeting the local millers
iv)
To develop value added sweet potato products for traditional and alternative uses.
v)
To promote commercial production and increase the local consumption of yellow/orange
fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) varieties that are rich in vitamin A in Buwama and Nkozi
Sub Counties of Mpigi District.
Innovative approaches and methods that will ensure successful adoption of technology
Voluntary Action for Development (VAD) an indigenous non profit-making and nongovernmental organization that was registered in September 1996 under the Non-Governmental
Organizations Board with certificate Number (S.5914/1709). VAD has been working in Mpigi
district since 1998 the time of registration and has registered many successes. VAD will
collaborate with the National Agricultural Research organization (NARO). NARO will provide
technical back stopping during the implementation of the project.
In Mpigi, women are responsible for the nutrition/feeding of their families. Therefore, women
groups will be selected to participate in this project. A total number of 15 groups with an average
of 20 members each will be selected from the Sub Counties of Buwama and Nkozi in Mpigi
district. The women groups will be chosen as the unit of implementing and analysis of this
project. This is because they are common throughout the two Sub Counties and widely
recognized as grassroots units through which change can be implemented, particularly with
regard to family food production and nutrition. By involving the women groups in direct
evaluation of the introduced sweet potato varieties it is hoped to hasten the adoption and use of
selected varieties. This participatory approach will also ensure that traits important to farmers are
evaluated. Experienced sweet potato farmers, who are mainly women, can give detailed
information on various traits that researchers might not consider important or might not be able
to measure satisfactorily. This will also accelerate the rate at which new varieties reach farmers
hands.
The goal of improving vitamin A status through enhanced availability, accessibility and
utilization of foods is likely to be achieved if women control both production and consumption
of a particular crop. To aid in the selection of groups, local leaders, extension agents and VAD
will identify all women’s groups in the districts. The groups selected will be those that are active,
with the majority or all the group members being women and the groups field plot will be easily
accessible for ease of supervision.
Sweet potato chippers will be introduced and distributed to farmer groups for processing the
dried potatoes which shall be easily and profitably marketed to milling companies
Expected social and economic impacts
This project is expected to contribute to food and nutritional security, and income generation
through promotion of appropriate sweet potato production and processing technologies by 2013.
Food based strategies that promote the consumption of orange/yellow fleshed sweet potato
(OFSP) varieties are an effective way to improve Vitamin A status of young children and their
families around the world (Hagenimana et al., 1999). The growing of elite sweet potato varieties
in Mpigi will be quite viable because although the farmers own relatively small farm sizes, the
crop yields very highly per unit land area. Marketing of the surplus produce will not be a
problem because there are several boarding schools and trading centers, which are potential
buyers, in addition to Gombe and Nkozi hospitals. The market for sweet potatoes in Kampala is
plenty. Kampala is not far from Mpigi (about 64km) and once farmers are trained in marketing
skills, they will easily organize themselves to market their produce in Kampala. Some companies
are already making arrangements to export the OFSP; thus the crop has a high export potential.
Dried sweet potato chips are bought by a grain milling company in Uganda (Maganjo Grain
Millers) from Soroti, a district located more than 300 km away, as opposed to about 64 km in the
case of Mpigi. Because of the added value, farmers earn more by selling chips than tubers
locally.
Project sustainability and potential for scaling up
The market for elite sweet potato and processed products for Ugandan farmers is a guarantee.
Demand is extremely high but supply is extremely low. The crop is not highly perishable and
will not give farmers problems with storage. The growing of elite sweet potato varieties will be
affordable because the farmers will not need major assets or inputs. The sweet potatoes are
already in the farmers’ farming system, but the new varieties are better in terms of yield and
nutrition. Therefore the growing of these sweet potato varieties will go a long way towards
providing food security and providing income for the desperately poor population. This will also
be the cheapest means of fighting vitamin A deficiency in the communities in the district, which
is prevalent judging from the list of food items commonly consumed by the people in the two
districts. There is therefore good potential for project sustainability and scaling up.
Monitoring and evaluation
Participatory monitoring and evaluation based on the project indicators refined during project
inception and planning meetings will be conducted every 6 months as mechanism for corrective
actions and adaptation management through holding annual stakeholder planning and review
meetings. Six months reports will be developed, discussed at project review meetings with
stakeholders, revised and adopted before submission. Monitoring within the project will be an
on-going process of tracking progress as the respective project activities are being implemented.
None the less, the monitoring strategy will include periodic reviews to offer more systematic
assessment of progress towards completion of the key project activities and realization of the
project goals. These periodic reviews will target major milestones (which will constitute main
monitoring checkpoints) based on the expected completion dates of particular key activities.
These periodic reviews will be conducted following the conventional time period in the
implementation of projects at which reasonable implementation progress and outputs are deemed
to have been achieved, namely quarterly, semi-annually, and annually. These (periodic) reviews
with be accomplished through structured and semi-structured surveys involving individual and
group/communal data collection methods based on indicators in line with particular outputs. The
finding from these major monitoring activities will be disseminated/shared with project
stakeholders in stakeholders’ feedback workshops. This monitoring activity (period reviews) will
lay the basis for the eventual evaluation of the project.
Budget Estimates
Budget item
Investments (project inputs)
Travel
Field costs
Workshops meetings
Personnel
Coordination costs
Organization overhead
Total (pound Sterling)
Amount in
Pound
Sterling
40,000
5,000
10,000
8000
6000
7000
4,000
80,000
References
Africa News blog, 2009. Sweet potatoes to beat climate change?
http://blogs.reuters.com/africanews/2009/12/22/sweet-potatoes-to-beat-climate-change/ Accessed
15-06-2011.
Hagenimana, V., Anyango O. M., Low,J., S. M. Njoroge., Gichuki, T. S and Kabira J. 1999. The effects of
Women Farmers Adoption of Orange- Fleshed Sweetpotatoes. Raising vitamin A intake in Kenya.
Research Report Series 3. Research program. International center for research on women. 1717
Massachusetts Avenue NW ,suite 302 ,Washington, DC 20036..