Quick facts on Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotato presented to ILRI staff on 16 February 2017

1. Sweetpotato Week at ILRI (13-17 February 2017)
Facts about Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotato (OFSP)

2. Origin
• Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) belongs to the morning-glory family.
• Sweetpotato is a storage root, NOT a tuber.
• Originated from Latin America.
• China is the top sweetpotato producer.
• Uganda is the top producer in Sub-Saharan Africa
• A range of skin/ flesh color white, cream, yellow, orange, and deep purple

3. Importance of OFSP
• Source of beta-carotene, the
precursor to Vitamin A.
• 125g of OFSP roots contain
enough beta-carotene to
provide the daily pro-vitamin
A needs of a preschooler.
• A valuable source of vitamins
B, C, and E, and contain
moderate levels of iron and
zinc.
• A healthy, cheap source of
protein for use as animal
feed.

4. ‘Let Food be Thy Medicine’: 2016 World Food Prize
• CIP and Harvestplus set out to prove that the local people in Sub-Saharan Africa
would accept biofortified OFSP into their diets, that vitamin A deficiency could be
prevented by eating it, and that countries would adopt it.
• Meet Drs. Maria Andrade, Jan Low and Robert Mwanga (2016 World Food
Prize Laureates) during this week’s Friday Morning Coffee (FMC) – 17 Feb 2017

5. The International Potato Center (known by its Spanish acronym CIP) is
a research-for-development organization with a focus on potato, sweetpotato,
and Andean roots and tubers. CIP is dedicated to delivering sustainable
science-based solutions to the pressing world issues of hunger, poverty,
gender equity, climate change and the preservation of our Earth’s fragile
biodiversity and natural resources.
www.cipotato.org
CIP is a member of CGIAR
CGIAR is a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future. Its
science is carried out by the 15 research centers who are members of the
CGIAR Consortium in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations.
www.cgiar.org