I then set up a youth group here. Many of the members are orphans, and all are from the local area. I had the idea to get the youth participating in farming as a way to help them. There were many young people in this area who had nothing to do, and they had no support or money. As I had started farming OFSP and was benefiting from it, I thought that it could have a wider impact. I explained to them how I had benefited from growing sweetpotato. I explained that they could be a part of this and they could invest their time and energy in farming with me.

Freshly harvested orange fleshed sweetpotato roots ready to be cleaned and sold Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

We distributed OFSP vines to each member and then appointed a steering committee to follow up with each member. We wanted to make sure that each person was planting and taking good care of their vines and to provide support if needed.

The roots have a distinctive bright pink exterior and orange flesh inside which is high in vitamin A Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

The members started growing OFSP successfully. Over a period of time, the members multiplied vines in their small plots and they started extending the space in which they were growing OFSP and moving to larger plots of land.

The roots are bright orange inside - high in beta carotene and vitamin A Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

The members have now started reaping the benefits. They started to make a little money and to be able to pay their school fees, or pay for health insurance for themselves and their siblings. Now some members are producing regular income from OFSP farming.

OFSP is harvested approximately 3 months after planting making it an important food and nutrition security crop in Rwanda Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

The OFSP roots are admired in the village because of their colour and because they are sweet, have nutritional benefits and are rich in vitamins.

The bright orange colour makes the OFSP roots stand out for consumers Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

We grow a variety of OFSP here called Gihingumukungu. We prefer it because it has a very high yield and very large roots compared to other varieties. It is also very soft which makes it great for baking mandazi and bread. In terms of taste, we like Terimbere. The roots are very sweet and our children like them because of the high dry matter content and the sweetness.

Freshly harvested OFSP roots are ready to be washed and cleaned Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

The first market that we have for OFSP is our neighbors - they to come to our farms and we harvest small amounts of OFSP and sell to them. The second market we have is the local market. Anytime that we need a small amount of money, we harvest just one or two baskets of sweetpotato from the farm and we take them to the local market to sell.

Drocella multiplies OFSP vines in a net tunnel (seen in this picture) to make sure that the planting material is clean from virus and pests Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

The third market that we have is selling roots to the Nyirangarama bakery here in Rwanda that makes Akarabo OFSP biscuits and other products. We supply OFSP roots to the factory every Monday and Thursday. This means that we have a regular demand for the OFSP roots. We are selling each kilogram at about 150 Rwanda Francs, and since we sell to the factory twice a week, we have regular income, which is great.

OFSP roost are washed gently so as not to damage the roots before they go to market Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

Another source of income for us is the OFSP vines. Many organisations like CARITAS come to us to buy vines because they have beneficiaries who are suffering from malnutrition. They know that OFSP is a weapon to fight malnutrition. We sell 1kg of vines for 300 Rwanda Francs – double what we get from roots.

OFSP vines or clean planting material are also in demand in the local area particularly by local NGO's working in health and nutrition Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

This sweet potato storage facility has helped us in a variety of ways. Before we had the storage facility would have mature OFSP roots in the field but we could not harvest it all as we could not sell it all in one day.

CIP helped Drocella to build a 'Zero Energy' storage unit for her sweetpotato. The unit is part of an ongoing research project that CIP is leading. Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

With the storage unit we can now store the roots for up to 6-7 months. That means we no longer have that problem of the roots going bad. Rwanda is a small country so we need to manage well the small areas that we have to grow sweetpotato and also other crops like beans. Now we can use the entire land we have to grow sweetpotato, and then harvest them all and put them into storage, and move on to another crop. We also notice that the sweetness of some of the varieties increases a few days after harvesting, so this is nice as well.

Drocella finds that she can now store OFSP roots for many months which allows her to harvest her entire crop all at once without concern that the roots will go bad or rot before she can sell them Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

It is very encouraging to us that we have this great crop that we can make money from now and in the future, and through which we can improve our lives. For us, we hope in the future that we can expand our land so that we can produce enough OFSP for the demand that we have.

Drocella proudly stands in a sea of green OFSP vines on her farm Credit: S. Quinn/CIP

Scaling up Sweetpotato through Agriculture and Nutrition (SUSTAIN) is a five-year partnership (2013-2018) coordinated by the International Potato Center (CIP) and financed by the UK Department for International Development to spread the nutrition benefits of biofortified OFSP to more farmers. The program aims to reach 1.2 million households with children under 5 years across four countries: Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Rwanda through mutually-reinforcing incentives to increase adoption of OFSP, consumption of Vitamin-A-rich foods, and diversification of OFSP utilization.

A photo story by Sara Quinn, Regional Communications Specialist, International Potato Center