Enhancing Climate Resilience Through Sweet Potatoes
The International Potato Center (CIP) team led by World Food Prize Laureate Dr. Maria Andrade announce the global Climate Resilience through Sweetpotato (CReSP) initiative to improve nutrition security and livelihoods of vulnerable populations in the face of climate change.
CReSP was launched at the Global Landscapes Forum, the lead side event of the COP22 talks being held in Marrakech, Morocco. The initiative brings together partners in research, extension, production and policy to improve and expand the utilization of climate smart and nutritious sweetpotato varieties in the context of national climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies. CReSP aims to benefit at least 50 million people in high vulnerability regions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America over the next 10 years.
CReSP builds on ongoing work by CIP and partners in Africa and Asia. Orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP), vitamin A rich biofortified varieties, has been demonstrated to contribute effectively to reducing chronic malnutrition and child stunting when promoted together with nutrition and health counselling. This pioneering work for which CIP scientists Jan Low, Robert Mwanga and Maria Andrade were awarded the 2016 World Food Prize. CReSP will extend these benefits to millions of people whose food security and nutrition are at risk from climate change.
David Lifson