1. Sweet Potatoes and Food Security Ipomoea batatas
Script: Hello folks, this is Luci Coleman here and today we will be learning about the sweet potatoes as related to food security concerns. Let’s get started.
Notes: Be sure to include your student number.
Critique: Slide is bare and does not capture attention well – but it should still be professional.
Luci Coleman #######
ESS 221
Dr. Rich Knight

2. Table of Contents Introduction Research Objectives Methods
Sweet Potatoes in South Africa
Interpretations
Script: We will begin with an introduction to the food crop, then we will transition to understanding the crop’s role in South Africa. I will review my research objectives, discuss how I went about answering these objectives, then review the results that were found. Finally, Ill discuss these results in the context of food security and KwaZulu-Natal’s socio-economics.
Notes: A table of contents is not required, but it will significantly help the audience understand what they are in for.
Critique: Consider adding a photo to enhance the aesthetics of the slide.

3. Introduction to Sweet Potatoes
Native to Central and South America
Simple and Complex Carbohydrates
Rich in – Dietary Fiber, Beta Carotene (a precursor to Vitamin A), and Vitamin C
World’s 7th most important food crop (FAO)
China supplies 80% of the world’s supply
South Africa grows ~50,000 Tonnes Annually
Script: Sweet potato is native to tropical central and south America and is commonly called a yam in parts of the United States. Sweet potato is a crop plant whose large, starchy sweet tasting tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. Although the leaves are also edible, the starchy tuberous roots are by far the most important product. In some tropical areas, they are a staple food crop.
Sweet potatoes outrank most carbohydrate foods in terms of vitamin, mineral, dietary fiber, and protein content
Industrial uses include the production of starch and industrial alcohol. Sweet potato can also be processed to make starch and a partial flour substitute. Sweet potato ranks as the world’s seventh most important food crop, mainly because of its versatility and adaptability.
China is the world’s leading supplier – supplying 81 million tonnes of sweet potato each year, second is Uganda supplying just 3 million tonnes. Nearly half of China’s supply is used to feed livestock.
Note: I have not provided useless fact’s here – rather I have carefully selected these facts as they will contribute to my interpretations presented later.
Critique: Consider adding photos of the species, a table of production rates, nutritional content or other figures that enhance your points.

4. Sweet Potatoes: An Effective Crop
Yield Rate: 13 Tonnes/Hectare
Short Maturation Period – 2-5 Months
Drought Tolerant
Sequential Harvesting
Script: Globally, yield rates are about 13 tonnes per hectare. This compares to potatoes at 17 tonnerss per hectare. However, in South Africa, yield rates as high as 25.2 tonnes/hectare have been found.
A short maturation period of 2-5 months reduces the risk of the impacts of sudden climate shifts. Additionally, a shorter maturation period indicated that the crop does not have to be planted all at once, rather successive harvests can be planted in a single year to again reduce the impacts of sudden climate change. Furthermore, short maturation periods of only 2 months may allow for multiple harvests to be planted in a given year increasing yields.
Sweet potatoes are known to be drought tolerant. For sweet potato, drought stress accounts for 25% total annual yield loss14 compared to more than 50% yield loss or complete failure in staple crops such as maize.
Critique: Consider adding figures to keep the audience’s attention.

5. Objectives Where are sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) currently found?
How will the sweet potato distribution shift under changing climates?
What factors influence these distributions most?
Script: This video is aimed to identify where sweet potatoes are currently distributed across the globe and analyze how this distribution might shift as a result of changing climates.
Critique: These objectives are very general. Consider maybe asking a few key questions that will be answered – for example, how is the distribution of sweet potatoes expected to shift in KwaZulu-Natal?
Provinces of South Africa (MOS)

6. Methods
Note: We are all completing the same methods, but some of you may incorporate only certain modeled results. You might incorporate results of all the models, in which case each should be listed here. However, you should include the methods only of data and models included in this video.

7. Current Global Distributions of Sweet Potatoes
Script: This is the current potential distribution of sweet potatoes. This distribution is interpreted from current climate data as resultant from the Domain ecological niche model. Notice that this distribution matches the species growing specifications of tropical to sub-tropical.
Critique: Notice the title of the graph and the caption. The map includes a useful legend, scale, and north arrow. Consider resizing the legend and scale to be readable on a slide. Be sure to discuss that this model considers the environmental envelop only.
Current potential distribution of sweet potatoes. 100 (red) indicates the crop is 100% likely to thrive in that locality.
Tropical Belt Distribution

8. Future Global Distributions of Sweet Potatoes
Script: This is the future potential distribution of sweet potatoes. This distribution is interpreted from future climate data estimated for the year 2050, this is the result of the Domain ecological niche model. Notice that this distribution still matches the species growing specifications of tropical to sub-tropical. In comparison to the previous current distribution, dark green is more pervasive, yellow/oranges/reds decrease in area as well. This indicates a decreased favorability of climates to sweet potatoes.
Critique: Notice the title of the graph and the caption. The map includes a useful legend, scale, and north arrow. Consider resizing the legend and scale to be readable on a slide. Be sure to discuss that this model considers the environmental envelop only.
Future potential distribution of sweet potatoes. 100 (red) indicates the crop is 100% likely to thrive in that locality.
Decreasing Favorability

9. Sweet Potatoes and South Africa
Steady Yields
Increasing Values
Script: Recall that South Africa is not a leading producer of sweet potatoe – generating about 50,000 tons annually. The sweet potato market has remained steady in the past 10 years – this exemplifies how sweet potatoes are an effective crop – outlasting droughts of the past decade. Furthermore, the gross value of sweet potatoes continues to rise. These two factors, when considered together, erect sweet potatoes as a viable and promising crop in South Africa.
Critique: These figures need citations listed. The graphs have captions that were associated with the original image – however, the Figure numbering of them in confusing – consider removing these captions from the image and creating your own beneath the image.

10. South African Markets Export Potential Imports China and Ghana
Production v. Consumption rates of sweet potatoes in South Africa (NDA)
Export destinations of sweet potato in from SA (NDA)
Export Potential
Imports
China and Ghana
Script: Consistently, South African consumption of sweet potatoes is lower than our national production. Thus, South Africa is self sufficient in terms of sweet potato production. This also indicates opportunities for export. The pie chart below shows the 2010 export nations receiving sweet potatoes from South Africa. Notice that 55% of our exports go to the UK. However, we consistently import sweet potatoes – namely from China and Ghana. In recent years, notice the price per unit import continues to rise while the volume stays more consistent. This indicates that we are importing a more and more expensive product.
Critique: There is a lot going on on this slide. Thee colors of the figures is distracting. Considering using lines or circles to highlight portions of the figures that you are interested in. These lines might be most useful if they appear as you talk about these points, and disappear as you move on to another point. Notice, the captions of these graphs are useful and clean, also notice the sources are listed in parenthesis – these sources can be identified completed in the references slide.
Sweet potato imports by South Africa (NDA)

11. Current Distribution of Sweet Potatoes: South Africa
Script: This is the current potential distribution of sweet potatoes in South Africa. This distribution is interpreted from current climate data, this is the result of the Ecocrop ecological niche model. This model incorporates physiological data into the model in addition to climate data. The distribution is centered around the eastern portions of the nation.
Critique: Notice the title of the graph and the caption. The map includes a useful scale and north arrow. There is no legend – this should be included.
Current potential distribution of sweet potatoes across South Africa. Redder values indicate more suitable localities.

12. Current Distribution of Sweet Potatoes: South Africa
Script: This is the future potential distribution of sweet potatoes in South Africa. This distribution is interpreted from future climate data estimated for the year 2050, this is the result of the Ecocrop ecological niche model. This model incorporates physiological data into the model in addition to climate data. The distribution is still centered around the eastern portions of the nation. Take note that the favorability of the eastern half of the nation has increased noticeably. We will be looking at the KwaZulu Natal province in particular.
Critique: Notice the title of the graph and the caption. The map includes a useful scale and north arrow. There is no legend – this should be included.
Future potential distribution of sweet potatoes across South Africa. Redder values indicate more suitable localities.

13. What does this mean for South Africa?
Potential –
Increased production capacity of sweet potatoes
Limitations –
Agricultural land availability
Competition with game reserves
Opportunities
Increase exports, reduce imports
China and the UK
Health implications – Vitamin A 64% deficiency
Threats
Invasive potential
Script: Although globally there is decreasing favorability of climates to growing sweet potatoes, there is an increased potential in South Africa, particularly in the eastern portions of the nation. Limitations to this increase would be the availability of agricultural land – game reserves are pervasive throughout this region, farming is prohibited on such land use. There are several opportunities to consider – first, as our current consumption is lower than our nation’s sweet potato production, it is reasonable to assume that as production increases, we will have the capacity to meet our own needs as a nation. Thus, there is an opportunity here to decrease reliance on foreign imports of this product, and rather increase exports. However, increasing exports would not be too substantial – recall that china is the largest supplier of sweet potatoes – there potential for sweet potatoes remains relatively constant as climates change – this means that their production will continue to dominate markets. That said, the UK’s potential distribution diminished with changing climates – the UK being our number one exporter of sweet potatoes – thus, it is likely, the UK’s need to import sweet potatoes will increase. South Africa will have the potential to meet these demands. Additionally, increased production of sweet potatoes has the potential to reduce health problems across South African children. Currently, 64% of the nation’s children are deficient in Vitamin A (89% of KwaZulu Natal’s children – recall that sweet potatoes are rich in beta-carotene; beta carotene is a precursor to vitamin A. Thus, increased yields of sweet potatoes, coupled with educational outreach, has the potential to reduce childhood vitamin A deficiency. However, as production increases, producers must be cautious because sweet potatoes have the risk of becoming invasive here – their drought tolerance would prove them to outcompete natives, especially in the Western portion of the nation where drought is more common.
Critique: The script here does not match the slide. The slide is highly inadequate. This should be broken up into several slides, possibly a slide for each part of the PLOT analysis. Remember, it will be helpful to bring pack figures from previous slides within the interpretations portion of your video to use this as evidence for your claims. The treats portion of this slide is highly incomplete.

14. References
NDA -
MOS –
Critique: This list is clearly not complete. There was no conclusion slide summarizing the video (highlighting the interpretations).