What is it about?
Sand storage technology is an improved technology from a local knowledge of sweetpotato farmers. This technology should be combined with Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and Careful Selection at harvest for good quality of roots prior to store the sweetpotato roots. Orange-fleshed sweetpotato, a 'soft' technology was used as an entry-point significantly contributing to improved nutrition in SSA. While its shelf-life is shorter compared to other types of sweetpotato such as white, cream or yellow flesh varieties commonly grown by small-scale commercial-oriented farmers in the locality. Our findings revealed that sand storage technology could be significantly useful for sweetpotato farmers living in the drought-prone areas where the rainfalls trend to be uncertainty. The sand storage technology could have dual functions as for food stock, i.e., food security as well as a source of planting material readily used at the onset of the rainy season. In this paper, methods regarding scaling out of this technology was discussed.
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Why is it important?
The sand storage technology can function for securing food (e.g., fresh roots) during the prolongation of drought and for vine production. The innovation package of sand storage technology can help farmers produce vines as needed according to its numbers and the timing of the onset of rainy season due to the climate uncertainty. So that farmers can have fresh roots as many as they want for food at home and for sales.
Perspectives
There is a need to make the technology to be useful in other countries. Because this project funded by USAID-OFDA has limited target project areas, e.g. Malawi, Ghana and Burkina Faso. We also targeted resource-poor farmers, therefore, we designed it for use at the household level to improve their livelihood. The perspective of improving the shelf-life of the orange-fleshed sweetptato (OFSP) variety could be possibly done in a big scale of production. This can provide the fresh roots year-round to meet the needs of agro-industries and end-users. The OFSP variety is known to have the shortest shelf-life compared to other types of flesh color. As I was involved in and leading the projects, i.e., basic trials and trials for scaling, I have personally seen that this could open opportunity to do further research on a big scale of fresh OFSP or sweetpotato root production. At the same time, we could make the private sector show interest and be involved in supporting the research work. The research frame-work should be designed to benefit the company and society.
Dr. Putri Ernawati Abidin
Reputed Agriculture 4 Development Stichting/Foundation Limited
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Using sand storage technology: can we store sweetpotato roots for food and vines, thus contributing to food and nutrition security in drought-prone areas?, Acta Horticulturae, September 2019, International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS),
DOI: 10.17660/actahortic.2019.1251.30.
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