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Blog Archives

2019 SASHA Brief 25. The growth of the sweetpotato knowledge portal and social media as information hubs.

Development and continuous improvement of a real time visual dashboard on the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal (SPKP) is a tool for tracking progress. Integration of the online Sweetpotato Variety Catalogue in 2019. Increased number of registered users and sessions on the Portal since 2016. Increased social media engagement on Facebook and …

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2019 SASHA Brief 24. Strengthening the SPHI community of practice: “A sweetpotato family, tremendously rewarding”.

Successfully held annual meetings for four technical community of practice (CoP) working groups over five, years with almost 1,000 participants (31% women) in total Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI) Technical Meeting held annually with over 100 participants and over 40 organizations participating during last two years (Fig. 1) …

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2019 SASHA Brief 23. Food and nutritional evaluation laboratory (FANEL): Growth towards a sustainable service unit.

Acquired and upgraded an Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy machine (ICP-OES) for mineral analysis, including an autosampler which enables high throughput analyses (Fig. 1). Research Associate Derick Malavi received training on operating the ICP-OES and X-Ray Fluorescence at the Maize Quality Laboratory, CIMMYT in Mexico. FANEL successfully registered for …

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2019 SASHA Brief 22. Potential business models and financial feasibility of selected medium-scale business enterprises for orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) value-added products.

Five potential and financially viable business models were examined for OFSP value-added products in the Kenyan context. These potential OFSP value-added products are cookies, cupcakes and mandazi (donuts), and OFSP purée for bakery products. However, the choice of products might differ in other regions based on market demand and cost …

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2019 SASHA Brief 21. The development & utilization of a breakthrough product: orange-fleshed sweetpotato puree.

Orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) purée can be used to substitute wheat flour by 25-60% depending on the product, without affecting the quality of baking procedures. We developed a safe, vacuum-packed shelf-stable purée that lasts 3 months without refrigeration, using locally available preservatives. By carefully washing the roots, it is not necessary …

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2019 SASHA Brief 20. Solar-powered storage in Mozambique: Lessons learned and way forward.

Design, installation and testing of a solar-powered storage facility (Fig.1) was conducted over four months in Marracuene, Mozambique using fresh roots of four varieties. The percentage of marketable root weight was above 70% of the initial weight at four months of cold storage in all the four varieties. There were …

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2019 SASHA Brief 19. Strategies for storage of orange-fleshed sweetpotato in Sub-Saharan Africa to ensure supplies for processing: Lessons learnt and the way forward.

Two evaporatively cooled stores (Fig.1) with the capacity to each hold 5 tonnes of sweetpotato roots were constructed in Kenya, one run on mains power and the other on solar. Using the evaporative cooling system temperatures of 20-23°C were achieved and fresh sweetpotato storage trials kept 63-83 % of the …

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2019 SASHA Brief 18. Rapid field based diagnostic tool for the detection of sweetpotato viruses is now a reality.

Extensive testing of LAMP (Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification) has shown a high sensitivity and specificity in detecting sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV), sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus (SPCSV), and begomoviruses comparable to using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-QPCR). On-site detection of SPFMV, SPCSV, and begomoviruses was simple to perform …

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2019 SASHA Brief 17. Are begomoviruses a threat to sweetpotato production in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Begomoviruses have progressively been reported to be infecting sweetpotatoes throughout the world. Despite showing few symptoms, limited studies have reported them to have a varying but significant impact on root quality and yield. A cultivar with moderate resistance to Sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV) and/or Sweet potato chlorotic stunt …

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