Women farmer groups making fortune from orange fleshed potato

The United Nations dedicated 2026 to women farmers across the globe.
The International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 aims to raise awareness of the role of women in agrifood systems and the challenges they face, including land tenure, financial and technical constraints, as well as limited access to services and education. 

It also seeks to encourage policie s and investments that empower women in agrifood systems and to promote greater synergies among international initiatives supporting women farmers.

Background
Experts from Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) say women farmers in the country drive food security and household nutrition by cultivating, processing and managing the sweet potato value chain.

This support is provided by scientists from the National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro) jointly with development partners, who participate in breeding quality orange fleshed sweet potato varieties, which are availed to various women farmer groups for production.

How it all started
Because they are key contributors to food security, Seeds of Gold reached out to women farmers in Wobluenzi, who have over the last 10 years dedicated themselves to growing orange fleshed sweet potato as a food security crop, nutrition, as well as income earning initiative.

The head of the Root Crops at the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI), Dr Bernard Yada, says his team, in 2007, released orange fleshed sweet potatoes varieties - Naropst 10 – 17 - for farmer adoption.

These varieties are enriched with nutritional value containing beta carotene and Vitamin A, which is good for pregnant mothers and children. Dr Yada says consuming 125 grams of orange fleshed sweet potatoes provides enough beta-carotene to meet daily vitamin A needs in the body. 

This is a cost-effective approach to fight Vitamin A deficiency and related diseases arising from the same.
Dr Yada and his team mobilised women farmers across the country, including those in Wobulenzi by availing them with orange fleshed sweet potato vines of the released varieties, which they duly embraced.

The scientists sensitised the women to adopt best practices, including quality vine multiplication in order to achieve better yields. The women groups’ farm sweet potato to harvest the tubers and the vines, with the latter acting as key income earning initiative.

They have further ventured into processing sweet potato flour, which they blend with soybean flour, maize flour and cassava flour as composite to obtain nutritious food.
The women also feed potato vines directly to animals as feed. 

Experts note that women make up over 65 percent of sweet potato farmers in Uganda, cultivating the crop as a vital food and income source on smallholder plots.
They utilise the crop for continuous household meals because it allows for partial harvesting over time without destroying the entire plant.

As resilience strategy, women use intercropping and organic composting such as mixing sweet potatoes with beans or maize to protect against weather shocks and stabilise food supplies.

It is a staple food security crop ranking as the fourth most important staple food in Uganda, providing critical daily caloric intake.

Women success stories
Ms Joweria Sekiyanja, the chairperson of Bajjabasaga Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato Growers and Processors Association, introduced orange fleshed sweet potato growing in the entire Luwero district after attending several sensitisation meetings with scientists at NaCRRI.

Her group comprises 80 members across the Nayirikiti Village, Nkatonya Parish, Nyibowa Sub-county in Luwero district.
“In 2003 I began interacting with Naro scientists who introduced orange fleshed sweet potato varieties in the communities because a number of children were suffering from malnutrition,” she says.

She grows potatoes on 20 acres of land where she has partitioned 10 acres for multiplying vines and 10 acres to tuber production.
She adds that scientists from NaCRRI, jointly with Harvest Plus put up a screen house in her farm to multiply cycle one (C1) potato vines. This is after obtaining breeder seed for processing C1 vines.

Harvest Plus is the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres (CGIAR) -led programme that improves nutrition and public health by developing and promoting biofortified staple food crops rich in essential vitamins and minerals.
In a season, she says she is able to earn between Shs7 million and Shs10 million depending on the harvest capacity and market availability.

As a trainer, she moves to different schools where she has introduced Orange fleshed sweet potato farming.
Other women in her group acknowledge her effort in bringing them on board to embrace orange fleshed sweet potato farming.

Challenges faced
Apart from narrating their successes, the women could not rule out the challenges they are faced with that include access to land since a number of them have limited ownership and control over land.

This leads to receiving restricted acreage to accommodate sweet potato farming for both food and as income earning initiative. 
Others are financial challenges because women face lower access to formal agricultural credit, extension services and improved seed varieties compared to male farmers.
Constant market access is another challenge especially during the period of bumper harvest where their produce will attract very low price.

The women are appealing for government intervention in developing policies that favour and support women farmer initiatives.

lafedradur@ug.nationmedia.com
 

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