In the Feed the Future Malawi Improved Seed Systems and Technologies (MISST) project the lives of 62,500 households are directly impacted through orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) out-scaling activities. However, there is limited awareness of the benefits of OFSP varieties beyond these direct beneficiaries. Enhanced adoption depends on promotional activities. The project identified key areas in which more awareness creation would be required. These included a) limited understanding of the contribution of OFSP to food and nutrition security and mitigating the effects of climate change, b)poor knowledge skills on rapid vine multiplication and vine conservation over the dry season resulting in insufficient quantities of planting material at the onset of the rains, c) poor linkages between buyers and suppliers of OFSP planting material, d) limited knowledge on the market potential of the OFSP roots and e) limited awareness on options for utilization at household level. An integrated approach was developed targeting different audiences. Seed multipliers and potential customers were linked in stakeholder meetings. We developed newspaper articles, TV and radio adverts, jingles, a song by a popular musician as well as market promotions through real live theater and comedy. We also engage government on IEC material development on nutrition sensitive agriculture. The effectiveness of our approach will be measured through the number of rural and urban households adopting and using the nutritious OFSP varieties through conducting a survey and or stakeholder’s meetings. Furthermore, radio and TV listenership of promotional song and adverts will be used to gauge the number of people reached.
Authors: Brian Kachisa
Subjects: MPU CoP
Publication Date: 2017
Rights: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) - You can copy, distribute, display and perform the work and evolved versions of it. You must give the original creator credit for the work.