Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato: From Leaf to Root, It’s All Food

Northern Ghana has a hot and dry climate and food is often scarce. Since 2014, USAID’s Resiliency in Northern Ghana (RING) project has provided support to 17 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to address this challenge. RING is an integrated Feed the Future program, blending governance, agriculture, livelihoods, nutrition, and WASH interventions targeted towards Northern Ghana’s most vulnerable populations.

One agricultural activity that has been particularly successful is the introduction of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP). OFSP is not native to Northern Ghana. However, it is highly nutritious, climate-smart, and female-friendly and therefore a critical food security crop. In the first three years, RING has successfully introduced cultivation and storage techniques, preparation methods and recipes, and managed planting materials for the next season to over 13,000 smallholder households across the project area.