Supporting and encouraging sweet potato business in Ghana

“I would like to thank AGRA and its team for kindly hosting this important meeting.

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There is a global movement in bio-fortified crops to which our sweet potato belongs. Many countries have included bio-fortification in their national policies of agriculture and nutrition. I am pleased that the Minister of Agriculture – during my visit to him a couple of years ago – included orange-fleshed sweet potatoes in the national budget and I remember fondly the positive remarks of his representative at our last meeting.

Across Africa, bio-fortified sweet potatoes are already contributing to providing healthier diets for rural and urban populations, creating jobs, and promoting entrepreneurship, often with the support from organisations such as CIP, GAIN, HarvestPlus, WFP and many others.

Today I am excited that in addition to our Ghanaian partners and stakeholders, we also have participants from across Africa who will share with us their experiences and lessons learned from working on orange-fleshed sweet potatoes.

I am sure that many of you already know that I am a huge fan of the bio-fortified, conventionally bred orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP).

It is a wonderful crop because of its health benefits, its climate benefits,/ and its economic potential/ that will benefit agribusinesses and smallholder farmers alike,/including women and youth.

I am convinced that OFSPs have great potential in contributing to food systems that support health and nutrition.

During my multiple visits to Ghana, I have seen first-hand how OFSPs are enabling profits for smallholder farmers, creating employment opportunities along the value chain and contributing to women’s empowerment in food systems.

For example, some years back, my husband and I visited Sogakofe, where a dynamic lady, a former homemaker, had set up a bakery to make the “Golden Bread” from OFSPs, which she sold at her roadside outlet.

I think this was an important lesson because, of course, it would be efficient to have large-scale processing units, but it could also provide the opportunity for a bottom-up process for dynamic persons /like the lady I met in Sogakope, to earn extra money.

Today, we will be looking specifically at the AGRA-supported Demand Creation and Impact Scaling Project for OFSPs in Ghana.

This one-year project started about six months ago and we are now halfway down the road, which is a good moment to take stock.

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As this is a scaling project, we need to explore how to further increase production, as well as our processing capacity and market demand.

It would also be important to develop ideas how to make this project a lasting legacy, to gather the knowledge and know-how in an innovative platform owned by the stakeholders, like a sweet potato value chain organization.

…I am very sorry to miss out on the best part, I know that you who are in Accra will be able to taste some of the delicious foods at the booths after the meeting such as bread, biscuits, chips and I am sure traditional Ghanaian dishes made with OFSPs.

Dear friends, we have come a long way; I hope we maintain the positive momentum, apply the best practices, and work in close partnerships to scale-up OFSPs to help deliver more healthy diets in Ghana and beyond.”