Annual Marketing, Processing and Utilization CoP Meeting

The Markets, Processing, and Utilization Community of Practice (CoP) Technical Meeting is organising a two and a half day conference to be held on the 14-16th March, 2016 in Kunduchi Beach Hotel Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The theme of the meeting is ‘Rebranding OFSP for health and wealth’.The meeting will start at 2 pm on the 14th of March with a hands-on training on the use of the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal; followed by a full day of presentations and panels; and a cooking demonstration and wrap-up on the 16th. The following themes will be discussed:

a) Nutrition and Health
b) Agro-processing
c) Value Chain Assessment
d) Harvest and Post-Harvest Management
e) Communication and Advocacy

This CoP meeting is held under the umbrella of the Africa-wide Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI). SPHI is a 10-year initiative led by the International Potato Centre (CIP), and it is expected to improve the lives of 10 million households by 2020 in 17 target countries.  One of the key intervention areas is improving the sweetpotato value chain by researching and implementing actions that will remove bottlenecks related to processing, marketing and utilization of sweetpotato products. The overall objective continues to be to develop the essential capacities, products, and methods to reposition sweetpotato in food economies to alleviate poverty and under-nutrition in Africa.