Project

Enhancing Food Security and Livelihoods through Virus-Free Vitamin A-rich Sweet Potato Vines: A Demand-Driven and Multi-actor Approach in Uganda's Refugee Settlements and Host Communities

Code
13V00124
Duration
01 September 2024 → 31 August 2029
Funding
Federal funding: VLIR-UOS
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Plant cell and molecular biology
  • Social sciences
    • Agricultural and natural resource economics, environmental and ecological economics
    • Consumer behaviour
  • Agricultural and food sciences
    • Agribusiness
Keywords
Food security innovation Participatory adoption Plant cell tissue culture Behavioural economics Refugee resilience Food systems transformation
 
Project description

The successfully adoption and scale up of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) as a food-based intervention is limited, more so in Ugandan refugee settlements and host communities. OFSP is rich in vitamin A and is cost-effective in humanitarian settings, however OFSP viruses are very prevalent andlimit productivity. This project supports the establishment of a community-focused and certified research centreof excellence in tissue culture micropropagation/multiplication, to supplyvirus-free high-performing OFSP cultivars. Using a Research-to-Action approach, existing farmer adoption andconsumer preferences for OFSP will be established, with a comprehensive analysis of the operations of existing OFSP vines input suppliers. This will inform the development and optimisation of in vitro tissue culturetechniques for efficient elimination of OFSP viruses and eventual scaling of the production of virus-free OFSPcultivars for sustainable adoption and consumption in refugee settlements and host communities in western andnorthern Uganda.