Our Fall Public Lecture: Tackling Malnutrition with Biofortification
Keynote speaker Dr. Maria Andrade, World Food Prize winner, focused on the development of the biofortified sweet potato to tackle vitamin A deficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The WFSC invited World Food Prize laureate Dr. Marie Andrade to present a keynote address at our Fall Public Lecture on 12 September. Dr. Andrade highlighted the most successful case of biofortification to date – orange flesh sweet potatoes (OFSP) in Mozambique and Uganda. The OFSP was conventionally bred to enrich the vitamin A content of the crop and counter the devastating impacts of vitamin A deficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Andrade addressed local and regional strategies for sweet potato dissemination, including reaching out to communities via song and dance. She spoke to the challenges of breeding drought resistant varieties of the crop, as well as targeting women and children as entry points for dietary change.
The keynote was followed by a diiscussion session with Dr. Engil Isadora Pujol Pereira, Sustainable Agroecosystems, and Dr. Diego Moretti, Human Nutrition.
We thank Dr. Andrade for her engaging presentation and all those in attendance.
Download the flyer from the event Downloadhere (PDF, 408 KB)