| AFRICA: Mary pushes sweet potato... |
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| 10/11/2010 |
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…and highlights continent's need for more women scientists
At a meeting with women farmers in the village of Kisian, Kenya, Mary Anyango Oyunga has a message about the benefits of sweet potatoes. Her example sends a message to the continent as a whole: Africa needs more women engaged in agricultural science. |
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| In the course of research for the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Mary found that Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes are particularly rich in Vitamin A. That is crucial information in sub-Saharan Africa where 43 million children are at risk of Vitamin A deficiency, which makes children more vulnerable to such diseases as measles and diarrhoea which can be fatal, and increases the risk of maternal mortality.
With funding from the Sweet Potato for Action for Security and Health initiative, Mary is now promoting awareness of the Orange Fleshed variety among Kenyan farmers. Under a pilot programme in western Kenya, all pregnant women attending health clinics receive vouchers entitling them to obtain 120 vines of the Orange Fleshed potato.
"If the method proves successful, then we will replicate it all over the sub-Saharan Africa region," she told Interpress. "When your study is implemented especially to serve the rural poor, you feel like you've created a bridge that people are using to cross from the world of poverty to economic development. It is extremely satisfying."
In the process, Mary is setting an example that experts say the rest of the continent needs to follow. Smallhold farmers account for 90% of food grown in Africa, a recent ActionAid report finds, and most small hold farmers are women.
"Scientists are on the cutting edge of solving Africa’s food crisis, but we need to urgently address the gender gap in our scientific community," Dr Akinwumi Adesina, vice-president of Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa told Interpress. "We need more women pursuing careers in agricultural science because women are the face of African farming." |
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Precision made in Switzerland