The Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato – developed by The International Potato Center (CIP) and Harvestplus – were “biofortified” with Vitamin A to address a deficiency problem which puts more than 43 million children in sub Saharan Africa at risk of blindness and diseases such as malaria. Plant scientists have also engineered them to be more resistant to droughts, helping to solve a problem of both food supply and nutrition. This is an elegant solution that takes existing local crops, enabling people to retain diet and habits, to fix a medical issue that would be expensive to deal with conventionally – such as providing pills and making sure everyone takes them.
