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SPHI Brief 25: Orange-fleshed Sweetpotato is Gradually Becoming a Commercial Crop in Western Kenya

As the Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) program completes the third and final year, strong linkages have been established between private buyers, processors, traders, commercial root farmers and decentralized vine multipliers (DVMs). The linkages developed by the program over the past 3 years have accelerated OFSP marketing, giving rise to a self-sustaining business model. Two private OFSP processors– Safe Produce Ventures and Organi Limited– and several sweetpotato local and urban traders have been linked up to over 715 OFSP commercial root producers through contract farming and mutual understanding, where each party understands quality standards of roots sold. The root producers are further linked to a network of 43 DVMs for supply of vines, 259 trainers of trainers (ToTs) and 23 trained Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) extension officers for capacity building and recurrent support supervision. Overall, the project has reached 43,000 households with integrated interventions of production, home utilization and marketing of OFSP.