Sweet pota­toes and yams are often over-sweetened hol­i­day side dishes here in the United States, but for farm­ers in Mozam­bique, this root veg­etable is mak­ing the dif­fer­ence between hunger and happiness.

By Lucia Rodrigues, World Vision Mozam­bique. Edited by Rachael Dill Boyer, World Vision U.S.

Manuel Andrade’s chil­dren enjoy some sweet pota­toes, the spe­cial root veg­etable that helps the fam­ily sur­vive the dry sea­son and stay well-nourished.
Photo ©2009 Lucia Rodrigues/World Vision

Edi­tor’s Note: For the Dill fam­ily, Christ­mas din­ner — and Thanks­giv­ing, for that mat­ter — wouldn’t be com­plete with­out baked yams with but­ter, brown sugar, real maple syrup, and toasted marsh­mal­lows. It’s more like a dessert, but I love it. I am also a huge fan of sweet potato fries. Huge.

I am slightly obsessed with these sur­pris­ingly nutri­tious root veg­eta­bles — the orange vari­eties are full of beta-carotene, Vit­a­min C, potas­sium, dietary fiber, com­plex car­bo­hy­drates, and more. Per­haps that’s why it’s so inter­est­ing to me that farm­ers in Mozam­bique are feed­ing and sup­port­ing their fam­i­lies by grow­ing drought-resistant vari­eties of my favorite potato.

Sweet potato farming=drought insurance

Help bring agri­cul­tural assis­tance to hun­gry chil­dren and fam­i­lies, like seeds, tools, train­ing, and more.

At this time of year in Mozam­bique, most of the farm­ers’ fields look dry, with some burned spots in prepa­ra­tion for the next sea­son of plant­ing when the rains come. Some fam­i­lies have gloomy faces. They are not sure what will hap­pen: Will the rain be enough to grow crops such as maize, rice, and other basics?

How­ever, Manuel Andrade’s fam­ily is hav­ing a dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence. He and his wife Emilia look very happy. They are work­ing in their field, cul­ti­vat­ing yams, or orange sweet potatoes.

When asked why his mood was so dif­fer­ent than the other farm­ers in the area, Manuel replied: “I am not wor­ried. Until the rains start and we start hav­ing new crops, I and my fam­ily are fine. I have a farm with orange sweet pota­toes. They are right for this sea­son, as there is noth­ing in the fields, and it is all dry at this time.”

Oddly named, but effec­tive: resisto and gaba-gaba

Manuel proudly dis­plays a set of the sweet pota­toes that have helped bring sta­bil­ity and hap­pi­ness to his fam­ily.
Photo ©2009 Lucia Rodrigues/World Vision

“From Novem­ber to March, the food is very scarce,” Manuel con­tin­ues. “Since I started farm­ing orange sweet potato, it was in 2007, helped by World Vision, I am hav­ing very sta­ble food sup­ply, and I grow two types of [potato]: resisto and gaba-gaba.”

The resisto type of potato grows con­sis­tently and flour­ishes, con­tin­u­ing to be edi­ble long after har­vest. Manuel dries the resis­tos and makes them into flour, so they have food until the other crops come around by mid-March. They also make a juice from the orange sweet potato that the chil­dren like because it looks like Fanta.

“Gaga-gaba is less resis­tant but sweeter,” explains Manuel. “Chil­dren eat them cooked and roasted; my kids love them.”

A trail of accomplishments

World Vision started a project in Manuel’s com­mu­nity two years ago to edu­cate local res­i­dents on how to farm this valu­able root veg­etable.
Photo ©2009 Lucia Rodrigues/World Vision

Last year, Manuel har­vested three tons of orange sweet pota­toes. He sold the sur­plus, earn­ing more than $1,800 — enough money to build his fam­ily a new house and a water pump to irri­gate his field.

These bless­ings are the result of a project that World Vision started two years ago to edu­cate peo­ple about tech­niques for farm­ing, har­vest­ing, and uti­liz­ing these mirac­u­lous vari­eties of sweet pota­toes. Now, peo­ple from Manuel’s vil­lage and the sur­round­ing area come to him to buy potato starts so they can grow their own.

“Because of this,” says Manuel, “I am now a con­tact per­son for World Vision, and I do help in train­ing other farm­ers who would like to go into this crop. I do encour­age them because I have seen the results and my fam­ily is not going hungry.”

Since he began grow­ing the yams in 2007, Manuel’s chil­dren have not been mal­nour­ished as they were in the past. “I thank World Vision for intro­duc­ing this type of sweet potato,” he says.

The sweet potato project has come to an end, leav­ing behind a trail of accom­plish­ments on which the local com­mu­ni­ties are con­tin­u­ing to build. The mirac­u­lous orange sweet potato has impacted thou­sands of peo­ple, includ­ing Manuel’s fam­ily, improv­ing their health, food secu­rity, and qual­ity of life.

Now that’s some­thing to cel­e­brate. Time to pull out those mini-marshmallows!

Sourced from: World Vision Latest News

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