Hi everyone,

Just opened up this task. Petrie and Loes from the Netherlands will be working on this as well. Please feel free to provide any information you may have.

Barb

Dear Eric, Barb and other neighbours.

This week is a special week for us! We do not have any lessons, but we get the time to work on our project. Yesterday we worked on the topics:
 the cultivation of sweet potatoes
 the nutritional value of sweet potatoes

Today we worked on the following:
 varieties of sweet potatoes
 food and hygiene
 basic gardening tools

We can find a lot of relevant information and we try to make a new compact document of it.
We want to ask your opinion about our varieties of species. We have make a small selections which we think could be cultivated in Kabondo and are the best option for you.

Our selection:
 Beauregard
 Juwel
 Centennial
 Regal
 Vardaman
We would like to invite you to give comments. What do you think about the possibilities to cultivate them in Kabondo?

Warm regards,

Loes Beukers en Petrie v/d Zanden

Hello Loes and Petrie,

Glad to hear you have been working so hard on this task!

The best person to answer the question on cultivators is Eric...

Eric - can you provide some info on this? Are you familiar with the above mentioned cultivators? Are they available in Kabondo and have they been tried? Are there other selections?

Thanks for all the work.

Barb

Hi Loes Beukers en Petrie v/d Zanden,

Thank you very much for your interest in potatoes in Kabondo. sweet Potaoes have suddenly become the cash crop of the people of Kabondo. When mature it is harvested and transported to many urban centres where it is served with tea or with beans or just eaten as a main meal on its own.

There are a number of varities cultivated here. i may not know them by their names but at least i know the local names. The people of Kabondo have tried out several varities and eventually settled on one locally called "Kalambe Nyerere". This literally translates to 'Nyerere's Pen". Julius Nyerere was the founding president of the Republic of Tanzania in East Africa. This variety originated from Tanzania and is very popular with people in Kenya. It is pink in colour on the outer side and white on the inside. I will look for its English name and provide it to you.

All the other varities may be grown by people at subsistence level for household consumption depending on the tastes and preferences of the individual consumer but will not attract customers in both rural and urban areas.

One part of Kabondo has favourable climate and deep red soil ideal for potato farming which can support any variety of potatoes. The other part of Kabondo is dry and does not support farming activities.

Thank you very much for the work you have done so far and do not hesitate to contact me should you require any information.

Eric

Dear Eric, Barb and other neighbours.

Thank you very much for your quick responses. We really appreciate this, because now we can make further progress with our project.
We have found out that there are varieties of sweet potatoes that contain a high level of vitamin A. This can be a supplementation to the diet of children.

Eric, you mentioned that the sweet potatoes are also used for personal consumption. We wonder what the possibilities are in households to process and cook the potatoes. Maybe we can offer you ideas to make them better to eat.

We truly are glad that we made the decision to participate in your village. Every day we work with great enthusiasm on the project and we can feel your support!

Warm regards,

Loes Beukers and Petrie van der Zanden

Hi Loes and Petrie,

How are things progressing on this? Do you need further information from us?

Regards,

Barb

Dear Barb, Eric and neighbours.

We posted our last message a few weeks ago. We have got a very busy time with a lot of exams and we also worked very hard to finish our project. We have shown our project at school and Thursday 16th of April we will take part in the annual Worldschool event. There we will present our project to international experts and we will talk with other students who also make a project for a Nabuur-village. We are looking forward to it!

We would like to publish our project on Nabuur but we do not know how to do that.
The project contains 20 pages.
Is there a special place on Nabuur for such documents? Or do we have to make a summary and publish that on Nabuur?
I hope you can help us.

Regards,
Loes Beukers and Petrie v/d Zanden

Hi Loes and Petrie

You can attach your document to a post in this task.

When you are creating your post, enter your text as normal. Then scroll down the screen and you will see an option called Attached Files. Click on this and the screen will expand to allow you to add attachments. Click on Browse to select the document you want to add, then Upload. Once the document has copied successfully, press Submit to save your post.

Good luck with your presentation!

Mary

Hi Loes and Petrie,

Glad to hear from you! Mary provided good instructions on how to attach it. I was wondering if you could also send a copy directly to me. If you send me a private message I will give you my email address.

Looking forward to reading the report!

Barb

Dear Eric,
Hope you are progressing well on this task.

Lats week before Christmas we were discussing in Nairobi about a similar issue on sweet potatoes.We need to strengthen the sweetpotatoes value chain.

We at one time thought how we can link the growers from Western and Nyanza with retailers in Central and Nairobi.Though the issue of transportation of fresh harvest/sweetpotatoes is a great concern,where it was noted it usually takes long.Noting the sweet potatoes may perish before reaching the intended distant market.

Value addition is the option that we might be discussing next month-January.Where the women growers would be trained on how to produce sweetpotatoes flour,crisps or any other bi-products.This will be easier to transport,diversify the foods in the regions,and also they will not be easily perishable.

I found it interesting and hope all goes well next year-2010.

Raphael,

Thanks very much for your contribution.Kabondo grows a lot of sweet potatoes, it could well be one of the highest producing areas in the whole country. I know therefore that if it is given the attention it deserves, it could help a great deal in poverty alleviation in this region. I am particularly interested in strengthening the value chain, market linkages and value addition. The farmers here also need training on proper farming methods.

Potatoes are bulky and perishable and if an attempt is made at value addition, it will be a big plus to the farmers. Currently all potatoes from Kabondo are taken to the Gikomba market in Nairobi which is over 350 kilometres away. The exorbitant transport costs and other related charges significantly deplete the farmers' profit margins.

I would very much wish to be educated on what value addition options are available to ensure maximum benefit to farmers from their sweet potato farms.

Keep me posted.

Thanks

Eric

Sure Eric.

Those facts are very true.I will link you with the Programme in Nairobi,and I hope they will be willing to assist in some of this possible interventions in order to aid the sweet potato farmers.

Once I meet with her I will let you and the Village know.

Regards,
Raphael

Raphael,

Thank you very much.i would be willing to network and collaborate with all stakeholders with interest in this respect.

Regards

Eric

Eric etc, Sweet potato is very nice thinly sliced and deep friend like a regular potato, then used as a snack food.
best regards
Louise

Hi Eric,
Have you worked with the GTZ PSDA Programme?
http://www.gtz.de/en/themen/laendliche-entwicklung/13687.htm
http://www.gtzpsda.co.ke

They are getting in to sweetpotato value chain.I will get you the Programme Officer in charge.

Raphael