Diverse partnerships with public and private sector players and investing in advocacy for an adequate enabling environment were critical for achieving use at scale. Implementing gender-responsive innovation packages has been critical for reaching key nutrition and income goals. Lessons learned from these scaling efforts are discussed, with the goal of accelerating the scaling readiness process for other biofortified RTB crops. Women dominate RT&B production in SSA, and women and young children are most at risk of micronutrient deficiencies hence women’s access to technologies was prioritized. The scaling readiness framework is applied to innovation packages underlying those scaling efforts to shed light on how scaling is progressing and identify remaining bottlenecks. To date, adapted VAB varieties have been piloted in East Africa, and OFSP and VAC have scaled to 8.5 million households. Iron-biofortified potato is still under development, and a recent study found high levels of bioavailability (28.4%) in a yellow-fleshed cultivar (Fig. Efforts to develop and utilize orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP), yellow cassava (VAC), and vitamin A banana/plantain (VAB) have been focused heavily in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where 48% of the children under 5 years of age are vitamin A-deficient. This chapter describes the degree of readiness and use of biofortified root, tuber, and banana (RT&B) crops: sweetpotato, cassava, banana (cooking and dessert types), and potato. This review looks at the process, practices, challenges, lessons learned, and future policy implications associated with scaling of XW management practices. Several approaches that have been used for scaling out XW management technologies are documented in this chapter. The SDSR package was promoted jointly with a set of complementary practices: (i) avoiding infections by browsing animals, (ii) using clean planting materials, (iii) bending leaves at the petiole level when intercropping in infected fields, (iv) training on disease recognition and epidemiology, and (v) demand-specific extension and knowledge sharing. The SDSR package comprises three innovations: (1) regularly cutting symptomatic stems at ground level, (2) sterilizing cutting tools with fire, and (3) early male bud removal using a forked stick. This led to the idea of removing only the visibly infected banana plants, referred to as single diseased stem removal (SDSR). As a result, not all shoots on an infected plant show symptoms. However, field experiments showed that Xvm did not spread systemically in a mat and that latent infections occurred. CMU assumed that infection on a single plant would systemically spread to all plants in a mat. There was little adoption of CMU, especially by women farmers, because it was labor-intensive and it sacrificed banana production for up to 2 years. At the start of the XW epidemic, complete uprooting of diseased mats (CMU) was recommended. musacearum (Xvm) is an important emerging and non-curable infectious disease which can cause up to 100% yield loss. Xanthomonas wilt (XW) of banana caused by Xanthomonas vasicola pv. The Scaling Readiness approach is helping to ensure that more farmers, processors, and consumers benefit from OFSP. Business models suggest that processing puree is profitable. The OFSP seed is available to smallholder farmers, who are linked with processors who buy the roots. Food safety protocols ensure that the puree is part of safe, healthy products. Consumers like the bread that is sold in supermarkets and bakeries. Private companies in Malawi and Kenya are now manufacturing the puree and selling it to bakeries that substitute OFSP puree for up to 40% of the white wheat flour in bread and other baked goods. Techniques fine-tuned by RTB allow OFSP puree to be stored in plastic bags for 6 months, without refrigeration. The technology to make sweetpotato puree has been well developed in industrialized countries since the 1960s. Replacing some of the wheat flour in breads and pastries with OFSP (orange-fleshed sweetpotato) puree can increase the market demand for these nutritious varieties and would offer economic opportunities for smallholders, including women and youths.
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