Grow sweet potato tops for vegetables and improve your food security

Diversification of sweet potatoes consumption is essential for global food and nutrition security. Eating the tops is popular in the Pacific islands, Asia and Africa, but consumption is limited in the United States. The leaves contain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, dietary fiber and essential fatty acids, according to dietitian Pace M. Johnson of the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences at Tuskegee University in Alabama. The bioactive compounds in the vegetables improve immune function by combating free radicals that damage cells. This action helps fight against cancer cell growth and heart disease. Increased consumption of sweet potato tops should be promoted According to Johnson in the October 2010 issue of "Nutrition Reviews. Known scientifically as Ipomoea Batatas, the crop grows in almost every family’s backyards particularly in Africa, Asia and pacific making the vegetables readily available.

In Philippines, sweet potato tops or leaves are common in many native dishes. Filipinos have learned to cook the vegetables in various ways, too numerous to state, the usual method being simply steaming by placing on cooking rice and salting. These crops are easy to grow and cultivate, and grows well in a wide range of climatic conditions. All one needs to do is to plant a vine into the ground, and it establishes. It is a vine, which most people just allow to crawl on the ground and it can also grow on trellis too.  A few weeks later the tops are available for picking as vegetables.  If you choose to leave the tops, the roots will start growing forming tubers which can be pulled from the ground later for food. The crop grows continuously all the year round. It is drought tolerant and can ensure throughout the year availability of greens and subsequent good nutrition. Apart from being tasty, these simple vegetables are packed with nutrition, being the only vegetables with Iodine, a common substance found in seafood. It also contains vitamin A, C and Calcium; In the Philippines, it is widely believed that lactating mothers fed sweet potato tops improve their breast milk production. In fact, it is now a major ingredient of a commercially available food supplement drink in the Philippines. It is also a folk remedy which is used to treat diarrhea and dizziness;

Sweet potato vegetables are good sources of vitamins A, vitamin K and folate, or folic acid. You can eat the leaves of the sweet potato as they are nutritious, delicious and medicinal. The vegetables are known to contain minerals, antioxidants, dietary fiber and essential fatty acids, according to dietitian Pace M. Johnson of the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences at Tuskegee University in Alabama. The bioactive compounds in the leaves improve immune function by combating free radicals that damage cells. This action helps fight against cancer cell growth and heart disease. Combining sweet potato leaves with mushrooms works well in a heart healthy diet plan to protect you from disease. The tops contain phenolic compounds which are known to fight cancer and heart disease. Here is a simple recipe for these nutritious vegetables which are easy to prepare, and can be eaten with starchy foods

1 large bunch of tender sweet potato tops

4 pcs Irish potatoes, peeled and diced into about 1.5 cm squares

4 medium tomatoes

1 Tbsp cooking oil

1 bulb onion

3 cups water

Salt to taste

Heat the oil, add the Irish potatoes and stir fry them until the outer parts start to change color. Add and stir fry the onions and tomatoes until they become tender. Add the water and allow it to boil. Add salt and the Sweet potato tops. Continue to cook, around 5 minutes, until cooked and tender enough, stirring once or twice to ensure the ingredients are cooked evenly. Serve warm. Grow sweet potato tops in your backyard garden and stay healthy. There are numerous healthy green vegetables for our consumption growing out there! 
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Orange fleshed sweet potatoes growing for food security in kenya

Contrary to the name, sweet potatoes are not related to irish potatoes as the latter are members of the Solanaceae family, which also includes,tree tomatoes eggplant, tomatoes, capsicum, red pepper while sweet potatoes belong to the morning-glory family or Convolvulaceae. China is the world’s largest grower of sweet potatoes, providing about 80% of global supply. There are over 100 traditional and improved varieties of sweet potatoes and their flesh colors range from white, red and purple. However Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes whose popularity is increasing in in Kenya substantially higher than traditional varieties translating into higher income for the farmers. Likewise O F S P is rich in Beta-carotene a pre-cursor to vitamin A and it’s a great source if vitamin E, in addition to providing essential vitamins and minerals. Malnutrition due to deficiency of micro-nutrients in the diet, affects the health of over half the world's population. Vitamin A deficiency which is common leaves people susceptible to blindness and poor body immune system. Research has shown that Consumption of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes effectively controls vitamin A deficiency. 

This is a practical long-term food-based approach particularly suitable in children who are most vulnerable to vitamin A deficiency. The roots are commonly eaten boiled or mashed. O F S P is developed by researchers through bio-fortification, a process of breeding staple food crops that are rich in bio-available nutrients. Sweet potatoes are relatively drought resistant and are therefore suitable for climate change adaptation in the current times Global warming.

This crop requires friable well drained soils, optimum, and temperatures of 12 º- 25°C and annual rainfall of 600-1600 mm during the growing season. Relatively dry weather favors formation of storage roots and development sweet potatoes.

Land should be prepared with an aim of loosening the compacted soil below, for achievement of a good tilth .This facilitates making of planting hills or ridges, to avoid obstruction during root development.

Farm yard manure has been found to give a good response in sweet potatoes and it should be spread over the bed just before ridging or mounding is done. However in very poor soils a farmer can apply compound fertilizer like 17:17:17 at a 100 Kg per Ha in two splits, one at planting and the other after 2 weeks during first weeding.

Sowing should be done at the beginning of the rains for a rain fed crop. Disease free vines of about 30cm in length are planted on hills or ridges, at a spacing of 1metre from row to row and 30cm from one vine to the other. Bury 2/3 of the vine at a planting depth of 4-6cm.

The 1st weeding must be done within 2 weeks after planting. The second weeding should come up two weeks after the first during earthing up.

Pests:

Sweet potato weevil is the most significant pest in sweet potatoes production, and its attacks are characterized by thickening and cracking of the vines due to feeding by the adult weevil while larvae bores into the tuber leaving holes. This leads to a bitter taste.

Control: Integrated pest management is recommended, as the follows:- 

·        Crop rotation 

·        Use of clean planting material, deep planting and regular earthing up to fill soil cracks around plants 

·        Early planting and prompt harvesting

·        Practice good field sanitation i.e. weeding, burn infested material

·        Plant away from last year crop

·        If seriously infested spray  with a recommended pesticide.

·        Organically incorporate a good amount of lantana camara before planting to repel the weevils

Sweet potato moth

Symptoms:   Caterpillar bore into the main stem leading to the roots. Vines with severe tunneling show weak growth and poor foliage development and later yellows, wilts and dies. Infested plants show poor storage root formation.

Control:  Handpick caterpillars or attacked vines and destroy them. If seriously infested spray with dimethoate

Diseases: Sweet potato virus is the most significant disease in this crop. It is characterized by dwarfing of plant, yellowing of vines and young leaves, excessive branching, dark brown to blackish corky spots in the roots.

Control

• Use resistant or tolerant varieties where available 
• Use disease-free planting material 
• Practice proper field sanitation 
• Control the white flies and aphids which spread it.
• Crop rotation

Maturity period: Maturity period for sweet potatoes is 4-6 months.

The output ranges from four to eight tons per acre.