Sweet Solutions to boost Vitamin A
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman-Continuing Education |
| Discipline(s): |
Biological Systems and Agricultural Engineering Design Green Design and Sustainable Engineering International Engineering Education |
| Special Topic(s): |
Engineering Photo Competition |
| Learning Resource Type: |
Teaching - Case Study |
| Media Type: |
Unknown |
| Author(s): |
Martin Parr |
| Description: | The Vitamin A for Africa Programme (VITAA) successfully promotes a new orange-fleshed variety of sweet potato. Mrs. Mwanzi lives in a village near Alupe in Kenya. There she grows a new orange-fleshed variety of sweet potato, which she heard would improve her children’s health. The oranged-fleshed sweet potato is a lifesaver for millions in East Africa. Throughout Africa, three million young children suffer blindness because they lack vitamin A. Two-thirds of children with Vitamin A deficiency die because of their increased vulnerability to infection. Adding the sweet potato to the daily diet of prospective mothers can also reduce maternal mortality and lower the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. The sweet potato can help prevent vitamin A deficiency because it is a good source of vitamin A. Local farmers like Mrs. Mwanzi like the orange-fleshed sweet potato because once the plant has put down roots, a family can start eating it. An established patch keeps producing for months, so it can be harvested gradually. To make sure that she gets the first new roots early, Mrs. Mwanzi has planted a nursery for the dry season. As she says,” It is best to plant a lot of stems in case some of them die.” |
| Rating: |
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| Related Resources | |
| Keywords: | Sustainable Agriculture |
| Is Component of: |
Case Studies in Research for Development |
| Usage Tip | |
| Related ABET Criteria: |
(h) Understand global, economic, environmental, and societal context |
| Use of Resource: |
Case study could be used in biomedical engineering, agricultural engineering, sustainable product design or social implications of technology course. |
| Difficulty: |
Easy |
| Interactivity Level: |
Very low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | May 2007 |
| Platform/Format: |
WWW |
| Cost: |
Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.research4development.info/caseStudies.asp?ArticleID=50 |
| Metadata: |
IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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