MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

OFSP Digital Bullet

One-line solution summary:

OFSP Digital bullet solution will promote production and use of orange fleshed sweet potato to prevent blindness and premature births.

Pitch your solution.

OFSP is a solution that will promote production, preperation and consumption of orange fleshed sweet potato in the rural community. Avoidable blindness and prematurity are on the increase because of lack of Vit A in most of the rural peoples meals.

The problems are attributed to lack of access to Vit A rich foods or poor preperation of the foods.

Orange fleshed sweet potato are rich in Vit A and can be easily produced by rural households as it requires very less imputs.

The solution will take orange sweet potato production lessons to the community through visual audio means and will be explaining and demonstrating the process of growing sweet potato and how to prepare dishes and make them part of their routine meals.

Whatsaap groups will a be created and tips of on growing and use orange fleshed sweet potato will be shared.

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

Avoidable blindness ranks high in Malawi and africa as a whole.A national survey conducted in 2001 showed subclinical signs of vitamin A deficiency to be highly prevalent among young children. Routine supplementation with vitamin A is implemented but programmes for ensuring a more adequate intake of vitamin A rich foods for vulnerable groups, i.e. women and young children, are lacking.

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children and increases the risk of disease and death from severe infections. In pregnant women VAD causes night blindness and may increase the risk of maternal mortality. Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem in more than half of all countries, especially in Africa and South-East Asia, hitting hardest young children and pregnant women in low-income countries

Food-based strategies are lacking to improve the micro-nutrient status of the population in a sustainable way. The current favourable agricultural context is a unique opportunity for introducing agricultural diversification for improving the nutritional quality of diets.

The nutritional status of the Malawian population remains critical. Although short-term interventions such as supplementation and fortification still need to be reinforced, investment in long-term food based strategies is urgently needed.

What is your solution?

The Solution provides practical information on production of Orange fleshed sweet potato through video presentations and tutorials in local language on projectors .

Sharing of information among member groups through whatsapp groups on how to grow orange fleshed sweet potato,how to prepare into a variety of dishes that can be adopted as routine.

Potato vines are shared shared to the local farmers who are in groups and team leaders are chosen who are able to read local language so that the can be sharing the information to fellow members in the groups.Supervision, leadership and guidance is provided on a regular basis.

Planting during dry seasons with help of irrigation is encouraged to ensure continuity of food reserves in the households.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

The solution mostly targets families in the reproductive age group and children who need alot of VIT A for immunity growth and vision.

The population in need of this is identified during visits to hospital. Martenal complications are from nutritional disorders from VIT A deficiency are a common site.Community screening has identified many children suffering from Night blindness from VIT A deficiency.

The people in the community will each have a piece of land to plant orange fleshed sweet potato and will be sharing and discussing information in their groups.

The martenal complications from nutritionl disorders will remarbly drop and avoidable blindness will be prevented providing afuture fro chidren and young mothers.

The communities will also be economically empowered as as they will be able to sell some produce through out the year

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Promote the shift towards low-impact, diverse, and nutritious diets, including low-carbon protein options

Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge and your selected dimension.

A good population does farming but mostly the produce are carbohydrates. It is easy to introduce orange fleshed sweet potatoes to them siting the benefits of Vit A to for our vision,immunity and how vital it is in pregnancy.They will easily embrace the solution as it will fall into their routine work.To add the benefits are so immerse.This being a crop that does not need much imput,it will no put any financial burden on them but on the contrary add value to their financial needs

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Lilongwe, Malawi

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community

Who is the primary delegate for your solution?

Richard Chitedze