Vicki's Picks

Putting Sweet Potatoes on the Map in Malawi

Advanced science training equips Dr. Felistus Chipungu, and other AWARD Fellows, to further their research

Sweet potatoes are traditional cuisine in the southern United States where I grew up. Baked, roasted, fried, or mashed, this succulent staple is often served daily, not just at Thanksgiving. And for dessert? Grandma’s sweet-potato pie, of course.

As a child, I knew orange-fleshed sweet potatoes tasted good, but I didn’t know they were so good for me. I learned about the root’s rich nutritional value years later from my colleagues—CGIAR scientists breeding orange-fleshed sweet potatoes high in Vitamin A to help improve the nutrition of children in Africa and Latin America.

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Recommended Reads

Check out:

• The University of Pennsylvania’s Journal of Gender & Water blog site
• Developing World Needs Farming Innovation to Ease Poverty, Says Gates’ Official Rob Horsch

Food: Recognizing the African Woman Farmer

An informative synopsis from the recent World Water Week Conference about the critical role of women farmers. Watch for the upcoming publication of Transforming Gender Relations in Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa: Promising Approaches, co-authored by Melinda Sundell, a senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute.

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Innovative Approaches to Gender and Food Security Changing attitudes, changing behaviours

“It is a bitter irony that our world currently produces enough food to provide for every woman, man, and child, yet a recent estimate by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) suggests that around 925 million people go to bed hungry each night.” This informative newsletter covers a broad range of issues affecting gender and food security on multiple continents. It is a rich resource of research findings for development policy makers and practitioners.
Insights| January 2012 Issue 82

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Why Women Still Can’t Have It All

by Anne Slaughter

It’s time to stop fooling ourselves, says a woman who left a position of power: the women who have managed to be both mothers and top professionals are superhuman, rich, or self-employed. If we truly believe in equal opportunity for all women, here’s what has to change.
Atlantic Magazine| July-August 2012

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