Experiences in uptake and implementation of biofortified cropsAndrew Westby, DirectorNatural Resources InstituteUniversity of Greenwich

NRI work on biofortification• Led marketing and product

development component of reaching end-user with orange fleshed sweet potato project.

• Retention of betacarotene during processing and storage of biofortified sweetpoato and cassava.

• Consumer acceptability and willingness to pay for biofortified crops

Orange sweet potato (OSP)in Uganda & Mozambique

• Acceptability of OSP compered with existing white varieties.

• Different colour, lower dry matter• Supports implementations strategies• 475 consumers in rural and urban

locations in Uganda• Consumers willing to pay more for orange• 82% of consumers found orange

acceptable • 23% more acceptable than white • 18% it was not acceptable

Rural / urban differences

Socio-economic factors and location affecting OSP acceptability

Acceptance was related to socio-economic factors and location

•All likers = consumed sweet potato the most frequently, were farmers, less affluent and least likely to buy at the market•Orange likers = more affluent and buy from markets

Orange maize in Zambia

• Explored how much consumers in rural Zambia will pay for orange maize which contains pro-vitamin A. Will consumers confuse with yellow maize (drought food)?

• Surveyed 478 respondents in Central and Southern provinces of rural Zambia.

• Explored nutrition messages by different methods (radio or community leader)

Orange maize – acceptance tests

• No nutrition message - orange maize acceptable to 86% of consumers

• With nutrition message – acceptable to 98%

• 20% did not like yellow. • 10-20% liked orange> white or

yellow• No effect of age• No effect of gender• No effect of how eaten• Differences by district

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

None Radio Community

White-likers (8%)

Indifferent-likers (50%)

Yellow-dislikers (25%)

Orange-likers (16%)

Effect of Nutrition information

Willingness to pay - maize

• No information, amount paid for orange similar to white.• Nutrition information resulted in improved acceptance and a

15% increase in willingness to pay for orange• Method of giving information (community leaders or radio) not

important.• Overcoming ‘novelty effect’

Yellow cassava in Nigeria (2012-14)

• Consumer acceptability (n=122 consumers) of eba and fufu• Acceptability 9 point-scale: YC (7.4) > white cassava (6.6) > palm oil

eba (4.9) • YC products liked by all.• Drivers for uptake: smoothness; yellow colour and mouldable;

good for children’s health and for eye sight

High iron beans in Rwanda

• Invisible trait -testing can consumers tell the difference?

• Compared local varieties with new high iron. Explored appearance (point of sale) and taste of cooked beans.

• Appearance and taste - not related to the iron content.

• Unlikely consumers can differentiate beans of differing iron levels by sensory factors.

• Some iron bean have clear visual traits (appearance, shape or size), these could be used to brand that variety.

Summary

• Visible trait is not a barrier to acceptance and helps to brand the product

• Invisible trait of high iron beans is not a barrier - uptake due to other factors such as yield improvements for farmers.