Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato Value Chain (OFSP)
Scaling vitamin-A-rich OFSP varieties through farmer field schools, off-take linkages, and consumer demand creation to address hidden hunger in Ghana.
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) awarded Fresh Logistics (FL)/AIC a project support grant of $350,000 for the period March 25, 2021 to March 24, 2022 (12 months) as part of the bigger project titled "Demand Creation for Impact Scaling (DeCIS) for Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) value chain in Volta, Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Central regions of Ghana to improve food nutrition & security and livelihoods."
It was a one-year job creation transformation programme funded by AGRA to support smallholder farmers to produce high quality Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato, to support women/youth entrepreneurs to process OFSP products, and to improve nutrition, food security, and livelihoods.
Project Objectives
- Increase OFSP productivity for smallholder farmers.
- Strengthen and expand access to the output market.
- Increase the capacity of smallholder farming households and agricultural systems to better prepare for and adapt to shocks and stresses.
Under the DeCIS project, Agri-Impact facilitated Mobilization of Farmers for Contract Farming, built the capacity of farmers on Enterprise Development, Market Facilitation and Private Sector Investment promotion.
Project Output
- 570,000 vines delivered to two (2) seed companies.
- 1,000 farmers registered in the Volta and Brong Ahafo region to produce OFSP roots.
- 70 bakers in the Volta region trained to use OFSP puree in bread production; 20 bakers also trained in the Brong Ahafo region.
- 1 biscuit factory started a trial of using OFSP puree for biscuit production.
- Two screen houses (6m x 10m) and two irrigation systems of 2.5 acres were constructed.
- 3,160,000 vines delivered to 175 farmers.
Lessons Learnt
- The inception meeting provided clarity on the status of development and further set out the working policies and standards expected from each consortium member.
- Bringing together different partners in the consortium to work jointly and peer-share expertise, knowledge, and resources gave a better outlook to the project and helped partners confront and address challenges across the OFSP value chain.
- The major concern of farmers was a reliable market for their produce. Due to past disappointments, a lot of assurances had to be made to secure their buy-in. The procurement of required vine cuttings from seed producers was a daunting task, requiring advance identification and request notices to ensure timely delivery of high-quality seeds.
Countries/Locations: Bono Region, Central Region, Volta Region, Eastern Region
Project Partners: Fresh Logistics, Kofi Annan Foundation, DKCL, CSIR, E. Darkey and Associates, AGRA, Ohumpong Investment Limited, Veronica Osei Frimpong Limited, Food Research Institute, RA4D