Gallery: African Potato Lab Fights Malnutrition With Biofortification
01Sweet Potato Seedling Shelf
MAPUTO, Mozambique -- When U2's Bono broke into the classic refrain, "Gabba gabba hey!" from the Ramone's "Pinhead" on a Mozambique sweet potato farm last year, the farmers joined in to create perhaps the most unlikely punk rock cover of all time. Bono's riff was inspired by one variety of the vegetable called "Gaba Gaba." In the last decade, the sweet potato has become an unsung hero in the fight against hunger and malnutrition in Africa. High in vitamin A and suited to a variety of climates, the sweet potato is championed by advocates of biofortification, a movement to improve global health by breeding nutrient-rich crops. The sweet potato has garnered more than Bono's tuneful endorsement, with the Gates Foundation pledging more than $20 million toward orange-fleshed sweet potato projects in Africa. One biofortified variety of potato is even named "Melinda" after Gates' wife. These high-profile contributions are testament to the movement's growing momentum and the gains already made by scientists and development groups. Wired.com paid a visit to the laboratory of the International Potato Center in Maputo, Mozambique, where biofortification researchers are saving lives with starch. __Above:__ A climate-controlled grow room filled with sweet potato seedlings is part of a lab in Maputo, Mozambique. *Photo: Grant Lee Neuenburg/Wired.com*
02Lab
Justice League for Nutrition ---------------------------- Although the International Potato Center sounds like a place where Idaho fifth-graders are dragged on field trips, in reality it's a sprawling organization promoting rural development around the globe. Headquartered in Peru, the potato's ancestral home, The Center operates a seed bank that includes over 4,000 varieties of potato, sweet potato and other crops. Through a network of offices in 30 countries, the Center distributes plants to local farmers and adds new breeds to its library. The Center and its allies have been on a campaign against vitamin A deficiency, a common problem in less-developed regions of the world. The consequences of vitamin A deficiency are devastating, especially for children, leading to blindness and a higher likelihood of death from measles, diarrhea and other illnesses. Consistently distributing tens of millions of multivitamin tablets could solve the problem, but that option can be difficult to achieve because of shaky distribution networks. Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are naturally high in vitamin A, and grow well in countries across the globe. For subsistence farmers, crop yields are a matter of life and death, so biofortification focuses on plants that are particularly reliable and productive __Above:__ A technician prepares a sample of sweet potato cells that will be screened for viruses before being propagated. *Photo: Grant Lee Neuenburg/Wired.com*
03Sweet Potato
A Little Something Extra ------------------------ In the developed world, people cover their nutritional bases by eating a wide variety of foods, but subsistence farmers who are vulnerable to hunger stick with a few dependable crops. These foods are not always nutritious. Even if there is enough produce to keep people alive, they can still be malnourished, because a lot of their calories come from a narrow range of foods. It's a problem biofortification advocates hope to tackle by breeding staple crops that are nutrient-rich. __Above:__ An orange-fleshed sweet potato is fresh from the ground in Mozambique. *Photo: Grant Lee Neuenburg/Wired.com*
04Seedling
It's All in the Genes --------------------- Though the term *biofortification* evokes biotechnology and genetically modified organisms, the Mozambican arm of the International Potato Center project uses only conventional selective breeding. This method is less effective than bioengineering when it comes to battling crop killers like the [boll weevil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boll_weevil), which has so far been resistant to conventional breeding solutions, but avoids the ethical and health-related issues that arise from hacking genomes directly. Corn, rice and other crops with genes from a pest-killing bacteria are in common use worldwide, but have been dogged by controversy over their unnaturally modified origins. __Above:__ A technician pulls a sweet potato seedling from a growth jar. *Photo: Grant Lee Neuenburg/Wired.com*
05Orange Car
Beta Is Better -------------- The Maputo facility has a lab and greenhouses where sweet potato plants are cultivated. Teams visit rural areas and bring back full-grown potatoes to analyze for nutritional content. When it comes to nutrition, oranger is better: Sweet potatoes with dark orange flesh tend to have higher concentration of beta-carotene than their paler peers. Beta-carotene has lots of vitamin A, and also a reliable source of orange pigment. __Above:__ The program promotes sweet potatoes at every opportunity, and favors equipment that mimics the orange insides of the vegetable. *Photo: Grant Lee Neuenburg/Wired.com*
06Green House
If You Build It --------------- A better sweet potato is not worth much if nobody grows it, so a big part of the project involves bringing plants to communities and encouraging farmers to cultivate them. The head of the Mozambican office, Dr. Maria Isabel Andrade, leads a team of researchers who are breeding sweet potato varieties that can survive in drought conditions. Droughts are a fact of Mozambican life for up to seven months a year. "We come to a community, and we identify a farmer that is, let's say ... better ... than any other farmer," explains Andrade. A better farmer is knowledgeable about sweet potatoes, and has enough irrigation to keep plants alive between harvests. Once Andrade and her colleagues have found the right person for the job, staff members provide plants, specialized training and a guarantee of a return on investment through a system of vouchers. In return for the subsidy, the farmer has to provide vines to her neighbors when the planting season begins. __Above:__ The greenhouse at sweet potato headquarters is where Dr. Andrade's team grows sweet potato vines that will be given to farmers. *Photo: Grant Lee Neuenburg/Wired.com*
07Planting
Target Demo ----------- In spite of their nutritional advantages, sweet potatoes carry a stigma in Mozambique and other African countries as a "poor people's food," cultivated out of necessity by those who can't afford to buy produce at the market. Local tastes favor white-fleshed sweet potatoes, which don't have much vitamin A. The International Potato Center's PR campaign for the orange variety focuses on women. In Mozambique, moms often cultivate sweet potatoes on plots near their homes, where they can keep an eye on the kids and run the household. If there were a commercial market for the vegetable, these women would gain financial independence, as well as more nutrition for their families. The Center is trying to spur market demand by touting the benefits of the sweet potato and removing stigma. __Above:__ In many parts of Africa, women grow orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to supplement to the family food supply, while men focus on cash crops. *Photo: Grant Lee Neuenburg/Wired.com*
08Wash
Preparation Is Half the Battle ------------------------------ If a food doesn't taste good, nobody will eat it, points out project leader Maria Isabel Andrade. Her lab includes a kitchen where she and her staff try out new varieties before distributing them to the farms. *Photo: Grant Lee Neuenburg/Wired.com*
09Bono
'The Sweetest Thing' -------------------- The orange-fleshed sweet potato has powerful allies, including Bill Gates, Nicholas Kristof and the troubadour of international development, Bono. Though he was visiting Mozambique in his capacity as an activist, not a rock star, Bono broke into a Ramone's song for the Center's workers. While Bono was in Mozambique to promote his ONE Campaign, which presses governments to increase funding for poverty alleviation, he took the opportunity to trumpet the biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato. He was heard to say that U2 was preparing for an upcoming tour by eating lots of sweet potatoes. *Photo: Courtesy of the International Potato Center*
