Sweet Potato “Drinks” Less, Feeds Locals Where Other Crops Fail in Dry Weather

Farmers in hot and dry Meru, Kenya have been switching to growing climate-resilient sweet potatoes in a mission to save their community from malnutrition and stop harvesting crops that inevitably get damaged by drought.

Run by savings and credit cooperative Meru Friends Sacco, the two-year-old factory boasts more than 1,000 farmers, who, according to General Manager Patrick Mbaabu, were motivated by a U.N. report warning climate change and poverty were affecting health in the region.

“The warmer the area, the faster the crop grows,” says Meru Friends Sacco chairman Julius Inyingi of the sweet potato, adding that farmers can keep the roots on the ground and only harvest them when needed. “That helps provide farmers with a continuous food supply, even when other crops have failed.”

The factory makes several products from bread and cakes to doughnuts and crisps, and farmers are encouraging others to grow more of the easy-to-cultivate sweet potato. The Kaguru Agricultural Training Center offers interested farmers with vines grown for the project under the county’s agriculture department.