BIOINNOVATE SWEETPOTATO PROJECT
SENAI won a grant for commercialising a quality sweetpotato seed system in Uganda. The project is focusing on “Integrating ICT in Commercial Production of Quality Sweetpotato Planting Material in East Africa (ICOPSEA)”. The project is a consortium of 6 East African partners in including 2 universities (Makerere University; Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology), 2 research institutes (Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute, Tanzania; Rwanda Agricultural Board) and 2 private laboratories (MIMEA International Kenya Ltd; SENAI Farm Supplies Ltd).
The funding has been provided by the Bioresources Innovations Network for Eastern Africa Development (BioInnovate Africa; www.bioinnovate-africa.org) Programme, a regional initiative currently operational in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, with support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). BioInnovate is based at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Nairobi Kenya, and the funds will assist countries in eastern Africa benefit from the advances in biosciences, by converting such technologies into innovations for inclusive growth and sustainable development.
The conceptualisation of the project stemmed from the realisation that use of poor quality sweetpotato planting material results in 50-98% yield reduction in elite varieties, and the associated increasing demand for quality planting material. The ICOPSEA consortium is led by Makerere University and is expected to contribute to enhanced food and income security among smallholder farmers in East Africa through commercialization of the sweetpotato seed value chain. The ICOPSEA consortium project will run for 3 years (2018-2020).
HARVESTPLUS MENU SWEETPOTATO PROJECT
Meals for Nutrition Uganda (MENU) project is a five-year project developed as continuation of the ongoing work at HarvestPlus. The overall goal of the project is to reduce micronutrient malnutrition and improve dietary intakes of vitamin A and iron for 420,000 households in 25 districts of Uganda by 2021. One of the objectives of the project is to “Improve access to clean, virus-free, orange fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) vines by supporting the Ministry of Agriculture to refine inspection protocols, introduce regular inspection and certification of vine multipliers, and build capacity of private vine multipliers to produce certified materials”.
SENAI is one of the consortium partners that are focusing on enhancing commercial production and delivery of quality OFSP planting material to farmers in central and eastern Uganda. SENAI is contributing to the goal of meals for nutrition in Uganda using biofortified sweetpotato through the following objectives: i) To acquire and maintain in vitro clean stock of farmer preferred OFSP varieties, ii) To build infrastructural capacity for enhanced production of quality sweetpotato planting material, and iii) To develop strategies for enhancing distribution and farmer access to quality OFSP planting materials. The project activities at SENAI are supported through funds drawn from IFPRI Project No. 306003.006.001 (520-01-01).
