Post on 07-Aug-2015
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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
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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.