ABSTRACT
Recent efforts to promote orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) across sub-Saharan Africa demonstrate the production and marketing of new crop varieties can provide health and other benefits to farm families and consumers. This chapter critically examines the ways in which the production of a nutritious crop promoted for sale and household consumption by smallholder farmers, a crop that is well suited to local conditions, and for which a ready market is said to exist. It discusses recent interest in 'nutrition in agriculture' in sub-Saharan Africa, and then situates the promotion of biofortified sweet potato. The chapter also examines the benefit claims made by organizations promoting OFSP production and consumption in Tanzania, such as empowerment of women, improved income for farming households and improved child nutrition. It highlights how efforts to commercialize the multiplication of OFSP vines, as the latest strategy to take OFSP 'to scale', offers financial benefits to farmers, yet often favours male farmers.
