CIP Projects & Activities on Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotato in Nigeria Presentation @ the Advocacy meeting with Ogun state Government Olapeju Phorbee-PhD Country Director, CIP- Nigeria 15th Sept, 2017

Brief About CIP The International Potato Center, known by its Spanish acronym CIP It is a root and tuber research-for-development institution delivering sustainable solutions to the pressing world problems of hunger, poverty, and the degradation of natural resources.   CIP is a global center, with headquarters in Lima, Peru and offices in 30 developing countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Working closely with partners, CIP seeks to achieve food security, increased well-being, and gender equity for poor people in the developing world. CIP furthers its mission through rigorous research, innovation in science and technology, and capacity strengthening regarding root and tuber farming and food systems. CIP is part of the CGIAR Consortium, a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food secure future. CGIAR research is dedicated to reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving human health and nutrition, and ensuring more sustainable management of natural resources. Donors include individual countries, major foundations, and international entities.

CIP has various approaches and strategies and one of them is How is CIP doing? CIP has various approaches and strategies and one of them is Biofortication

Biofortification – the concept Biofortification - increasing the density of vitamins and minerals in a crop through plant breeding or agronomic practices The biofortified crops, when consumed regularly, will generate measurable improvement in micronutrient status Hence, targeting of staple crops Biofortification is a complementary tool to existing nutrition interventions. Biofortification is cost-effective and sustainable on its own. Often a one-time investment. Target group is farmers who produce and home consume large quantities of biofortified staple crops and typically suffer from MD Generic: Our work: HarvestPlus and its partners are developing and promoting biofortified staple crops through plant breeding to increase the density of vitamins and minerals, sufficient to impact human health and nutrition. [All HarvestPlus crops released by governments to date are conventionally bred.] Focus on iron, zinc and vitamin A

Strategies for Tackling Hidden Hunger

Biofortification in Vogue! Kuwait 2016 Al-Sumait Food Security Prize for Development in Africa Awarded! for their ground-breaking studies on the causes of undernourishment and solutions Vitamin A rich sweetpotato (OFSP) Vitamin A maize, cassava others Biofortification - breeding critical vitamins and micronutrients into staple crops, Helped reduce hidden hunger Biofortification is gaining importance! Seize the moment!

Why Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotato (OFSP)? OFSP varieties of sweetpotato are improved varieties that are enrich with pro-vitamin A Vitamin A deficiency is one of the major health problems in developing countries because of poverty, food insecurity Other common white-fleshed varieties are rich in both micro and macro nutrients except vitamin A Vitamin A is an important vitamin to all humans especially women and children The crop can be grown in all the 36 states of Nigeria It has short production cycle (3-4 months), which makes it a suitable industrial raw material

CIP Projects in Nigeria on OFSP since 2011 Reaching Agent of Change (RAC) Sweetpotato for Health & Wealth in Nigeria (Rainbow Project) Jumpstarting OFSP for Diversified Markets in West Africa SASHA-Pre Basics Building Nutritious Food Baskets Project in Nigeria

Reaching Agents of Change (RAC) The main focus of RAC was on increasing awareness about vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and strengthening both the technical and advocacy capacity for the successful utilization of OFSP in nutrition interventions. The project advocated for increased investment in OFSP to combat VAD among young children and women of reproductive age, Also built the institutional capacity to design and implement gender-sensitive projects to ensure wide access and utilization of OFSP in selected African countries

RAC Preliminary Achievements Raising of Advocates for OFSP in 3 states in Nigeria. Multiplication of critical foundation material at NRCRI stations National release of two OFSP varieties, Mother’s Delight and King in 2012/2013. RAC collaboration with the Agriculture and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI) Ilorin, Kwara state to establish an annual 10-day training course on Everything you ever wanted to know about SP. MOTHER’S DELIGHT KING ‘J’ Everything you ever wanted to know about Sweetpotato course Manuals

Rainbow Project Summary Project Objective Building of a community of practice that will effectively contribute to the reduction of food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty in Nigeria through leveraging the unexploited potentials of OFSP and improving market opportunities for all types of sweetpotato. Project Implementer CIP Locations: FCT, Nassarawa, Benue, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kwara and Osun states Partners NRCRI, Umudike, FUNAAB, HKI & Kwara Poly, Offa, ADPs, FMARD Duration: 4 year but obligation is on yearly basis

Our activities cover the entire value chain Vine Multiplication Vine Dissemination Capacity Building/Strengthening Product Development Root Production Demand Creation Monitoring & Evaluation Others: Triple ‘S’, research activities Market Linkage Administration

Specific Activities/Achievements Osun State: Inclusion of OFSP in the School feeding program

School Feeding Sensitization

Inclusion of OFSP in the IYCF Program CIP collaborated with HKI-SPRING Project on IYCF in 2 states-Benue & FCT Vines were disseminated to the IYCF support groups The support groups were trained on OFSP planting and basic processing The inclusion successfully linked nutrition and agriculture Other roles of HKI in Rainbow project includes advocacy, awareness and demand creation

Clinic Sensitizations

Jumpstarting Project Focused on creating diversified markets for OFSP. Continue with scaling up of the school feeding program in Osun state Today OFSP in pottage is served in over 174 public schools in Osun state

Pre Basics seed Production- SASHA Project The Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA) is a 10-year research project designed to improve the food security and health of poor families in SSA, by exploiting the untapped potential of sweetpotato. SASHA is part of the continent wide Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI) co-led by CIP and FARA which aims to reach 10 million households across Africa by 2020. Since July 2015 the SASHA project has collaborated with the National Root Crop Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike to develop and test a model for sustainable pre-basic seed production for the timely availability of quality sweetpotato planting materials. Activities are implemented at the two stations of the NRCRI in Abia and Osun states and Kano and Kaduna states. These are important sweetpotato producing areas, and seed production activities are being linked into institutional markets for roots.

The specific objectives are to: Ensure increased capacity for production of high quality sweetpotato planting materials by public and private sector Enhance the awareness and commercialization of high quality sweetpotato planting material among stakeholders Quality assurance of sweetpotato pre-basic seed and quality declared seed established Achievements to date include Infrastructure improvement Training in tissue culture micro-propagation and screen house management Production of 75,000pre-basic cuttings and drafting of seed standards for sweetpotato quality declared planting material

Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) Project Three-year project (Nov 2015 –Oct 2018) funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Adopts a multi-crop – nutritious ‘food basket’ approach (biofortified beans, cassava, maize, sweetpotato) Implemented in Nigeria and Tanzania - builds on the success of the Reaching Agents of Change (RAC) project

Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) Project Led by the CIP and implemented through a consortium of partners with diverse expertise: CIAT - high iron beans CIMMYT - pro-vitamin A (orange) maize CIP - orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP), advocacy and capacity development IITA - vitamin A (yellow) cassava, pro-vitamin A (orange) maize HarvestPlus - scaling up biofortification at country level FARA - policy engagement and advocacy at regional level Governments of Nigeria and Tanzania Range of national, regional, international partners from public, private and civil society organizations

BNFB Goal, Purpose & Objectives Reduce hidden hunger OBJ 1: Strengthen enabling environment for investments OBJ 2: Strengthen institutional & community capabilities Purpose: Demonstrate how scaling up of “multiple biofortified crops” can be achieved “Scaling up is dependent on supportive policy environment, strong institutional capacities and proven technologies”

Project Outputs Improved supportive policy & investment environment for biofortification in Nigeria & Tanzania Strengthened institutional & community capabilities to produce & consume biofortified crops .

Some Achievements to Date in Nigeria A series of high level advocacy engagements National advocates identified Enhanced capacity of selected Stakeholders Inclusion of biofortification in the country plans Nigeria Food security and Nutrition Strategic Plan Strategy plan for the revised Food & Nutrition Policy-Nigeria National advocacy brief-Nigeria PVA (orange) maize - Nigeria Nigeria – 3 tons breeder seed provided to seed companies for production and dissemination of PVA maize varieties

Invitation! You & I can make the difference! Choose to be part of the solution! Let us pull together to reduce hidden hunger! African Union (AU)’s Agenda 2063 Malabo Commitment - end hunger, reduce stunting to below 10% by 2025 Sustainable Development Goal 2 Target 2.1 - end hunger & ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food by all people by 2030 Global Nutrition Targets – cut down stunting by 40% by 2025

THANK YOU!!!!