Vitamin A Deficiency is a major threat to women and children’s health in Mozambique. In 2000, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development launched a program to multiply and widely distribute vines of orange-fleshed sweetpotato varieties (OFSVs) to smallholders throughout the country. Since sweetpotatoes are grown and consumed by almost all small farmers, it was anticipated that widespread farmer adoption of OFSV would have a major impact on reducing vitamin A deficiency.

Farmers (150) who had received vines in 2000 of recently-released OFSVs were surveyed to assess the adoption rate and investigate the key factors determining farmer adoption of the nutritionally-improved sweetpotato varieties.

Major factors associated with adoption include sweetpotato cultivated area, participation in field days/demonstration activities, number of OFSVs grown by farmers, and the number of times the respondent received vines. To spur adoption of OFSVs, it is recommended that more resources should be allocated to post-harvest research to identify appropriate storage and processing techniques, market opportunities for processed sweetpotato products, and effective ways to link OFSVs growers to potential processors and output markets, and funding to rehabilitate soil drainage systems in lowlands.