African ‘super food’ to fight malnutrition among poor children in Gorakhpur region
Known in local parlance as ‘Sunahri Kand’, African super food ‘golden sweet potato’ is loaded with 150% more Vitamin A than carrot and papaya. It is very similar to the Indian sweet potatoin appearance but differs largely in nutritional value.
Loaded with 150% more Vitamin A than carrot and papaya, African super food ‘orange-fleshed sweet potatoes’ are now being exclusively cultivated in Gorakhpur region to help fight malnutrition, particularly deficiency of Vitamin A, among poor children who don’t get a balanced diet.
The idea to bring the root crop from African and Latin American countries to east UP’s Gorakhpur region was conceived and implemented by Dr Ram Chet Chaudhary, a Gorakhpur-based retired agriculture scientist.
As chief technical expert with the Food and Agriculture Organisation, United Nations, between 2006 and 2012, in Uganda, Chaudhary learned about the successful ‘golden sweet potato’ projects launched by governments in poor African countries to fight malnutrition on a massive scale.
“After watching the project in Uganda, I thought this was something urgently needed in Gorakhpur,” he said.
Commenting on the need to bring ‘golden sweet potato’ to Gorakhpur region, Chaudhary said: “We conducted a survey in 2015-16 across several schools in remote locations in Gorakhpur and Sant Kabir Nagar, which revealed shocking figures with 51% of children aged between 3 and 12 years suffering from all kinds of eye diseases due to a severe deficiency of Vitamin A.
“Apart from eye diseases, the deficiency also accounted for a high number of diarrhoea deaths in the past few years as antibiotics failed to act in Vitamin A-deficient children. To tackle this deficiency, the ‘golden sweet potato’ -- the best and cheapest source of Vitamin A – cultivation was planned. One gram of ‘golden sweet potato’provides 25mg Vitamin A.”
Known in local parlance as ‘Sunahri Kand’, ‘golden sweet potato’ is being cultivated in five remote villages of Gorakhpur to help poor families fight malnutrition among children, who are developing poor vision due to inappropriate intake of vital nutrients.
In appearance, the ‘golden sweet potato’ is very similar to the Indian sweet potato that is readily available in the market. However, they differ largely in nutritional value.
Participatory Rural Development Foundation, an NGO led by the retired agri-scientist, is encouraging farmers to undertake ‘golden sweet potato’ farming to meet the nutritional requirement of their families and also to earn a good profit with minimum investment.
So far, 50 farmers have adopted it as allied farming in five villages of Gorakhpur and Sant Kabir Nagar. The NGO is spreading awareness in schools and colleges by asking children to include food made of the golden sweet potato in their daily diet.
UP horticulture minister Dara Singh Chauhan responded to a request made by the NGO asking him to extend government help to promote the project by making people aware about it. Appreciating the move, Chauhan told the NGO that he has forwarded the proposal to the principal secretary, horticulture, Sudhir Garg for further action.
The NGO is also planning to commercialise ‘golden sweet potato’ products like chips, pickles and fritters (made from its leaves) and home science students have been trained to make delicacies from it. Horticulture director RP Singh said, “No doubt, it has very high nutritional value but we can’t do something until the state or central government gives permission.”
Caption; Farmers growing “ Golden Sweet Potatoes “ in Pipraich Block’s Ramnagar Karjaha. HT Photos.
