{ {{Through ‘Sustain’ Project (Scaling up Sweeetpotato through Agriculture and Nutrition in Rwanda), Sweetpotato is seen as a key in fighting malnutrition across Rwanda.}}
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Many Rwandans see Sweetpotato as a food for only poor families while researchers have found that sweetpotatoes can play an important role in young child feeding practices.
It is against these findings that on 10th March 2015, Dr Jean Jaques Muhindo, Director General of Rwanda Agriculture Board and Simon Heck Director of Sustain and Program Leader at International Potato Center (CIP), launched the “Sustain” Project as a contribution to increased incomes and improved health outcomes for a country like Rwanda.
Simon Heck, Director of Sustain and Program Leader at International Potatoes Center said that they are going to increase the production of potatoes which is the traditional crop in Rwanda from 4 districts to 8 while at the same time thinking how to expand Potato farming in all districts.
He said the orange potatoes are rich on better carrot, which is an ingredient producing vitamin A and minerals after consummation, adding that they are productive.
“For instance sweetpotato can be used to make High-grade starch for pharmaceutical industry, Bread, Cakes, Biscuits, Various snacks, Chapati, Porridge, Juice and Complimentary child feeding foods for weaning children. “ he explained.
Dr Jean Jaques Muhindo, Director General of Rwanda Agriculture Board says that “Currently agriculture contributes 1/3 of Rwanda’s total GDP and It is estimated that 80% of the total population relies on agriculture as their main economic activity.”
He added that agriculture also meets 90% of the national food needs and generates more than 70% of the country’s export revenues.
With this background, he shows how an agricultural project in this sector such as the one launched (SUSTAIN program) can contribute to increased incomes and improved health outcomes for a country like Rwanda.
According to the 2015 UNICEF State of the World’s Children Report 2, 17% of the children aged 6-23 months are receiving the minimum acceptable diet recommended by infant and young child feeding practices.
44% of children under the age of five are stunted, 12% are underweight,, 3% are wasted and 7% of infants are born with a low birth weight.
For him 125 grams of orange flesh sweetpotato gives enough vitamin A to meet the daily recommended dietary allowance for an adult and this is a key to eradicate such statistics.
The statistics he quoted above not only shows that they still have work to do as a country to address the hidden hunger problem, But also to address the challenges facing vulnerable groups such as pregnant and lactating mothers.
Others keys actions to address malnutrition are; Increase nutrition capacity with the Ministries of Health and Agriculture – the government of Rwanda is doing this currently: Improve infant and young child feeding practices through effective messaging, education, and counseling services; Promote the consumption of nutrient rich bio-fortified crops such as orange flesh sweet potato, especially for vulnerable groups and households in addition to continued national vitamin A supplementation campaigns to address micronutrient deficiencies; improve dietary diversity through promoting food based approach through home production and consumption of a varied diet; Market development for bio-fortified food crops to increase adoption and ensure deworming of children to control anemia.
As contribution, a project like SUSTAIN can make a great contribution to the Rwanda society because it seeks to explicitly integrate an Agriculture-Nutrition-Market approach to maximize the potential benefit of Orange Fleshed Sweet potato on health status of the whole household and in particular pregnant women, lactating mothers and children less than 5 years.
The project is implemented in Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique. The first project was SACHA (Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa) and it was also implemented in Rwanda.
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