Gendered Boiled & Steamed Sweetpotato Product Profile in Uganda

The WP1 Gendered Food Product Profile for boiled & steamed sweetpotato in Uganda reflects the final step (step 5) of an interdisciplinary five-step methodology developed to identify demand for quality characteristics among diverse user groups along the food chain (Forsythe et al., 2022). This methodology includes: step 1) interdisciplinary state of knowledge of the product; step 2) gendered food mapping, which includes participatory research with men and women in rural communities regarding their product preferences and priorities; step 3) participatory processing diagnosis and quality characteristics ; and step 4) consumer studies in rural and urban areas of the product using different RTB varieties.
Results from step 1 and 2 have been published in Robert O. M. Mwanga, Sarah Mayanja, Jolien Swanckaert, Mariam Nakitto, Thomas zum Felde, Wolfgang Grüneberg, Netsayi Mudege, Mukani Moyo, Linly Banda, Samuel Edgar Tinyiro, Sarah Kisakye, David Bamwirire, Beatrice Anena, Alexandre Bouniol, Damalie Babirye Magala, Benard Yada, Edward Carey, Maria Andrade, Suzanne D. Johanningsmeier, Lora Forsythe, Geneviève Fliedel & Tawanda Muzhingi (2021). Development of a food product profile for boiled and steamed sweetpotato in Uganda for effective breeding. International Journal of Food science and Technology, 56(3), 1385-1398. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijfs.14792.

The WP1 Gendered Food Product Profile for boiled & steamed sweetpotato in Uganda has been agreed by a multidisciplinary team based on the evidence collected on preferred quality characteristics at each step and assessed for their potential harm and benefit for women, based on an adapted G+ tool (publication pending by Forsythe et al.).

The Gendered Product Profile for boiled and steamed sweetpotato consisted of most preferred or high quality raw, processing and final product quality characteristics as derived from the state of knowledge, gendered food mapping, participatory processing diagnosis and consumer testing. These were prioritized after triangulation and then subjected to gender analysis. At raw material the priority characteristics were; smooth skin, produces sap when broken, large root, hard root and sweet taste. Processing characteristics were; cooks fast (easy to cook) and reduced oxidation while the final product priority was; mealy, sweet taste, good sweetpotato smell, firm and not fibrous. After gender analysis, ‘produces sap when broken’ was deprioritized (rejected). The reasons were that sweetpotato requires moderate sap and breeding for more amount of sap would increase drudgery it would become difficult to wash and more water would be used by women. If sweetpotato is bred for more sap, it would only be beneficial for planting where it increases weevil resistance but would be rejected by consumers because it would require more resources for processing into boiled product. A change in the current amount of sap in sweetpotato would therefore bring in a considerable harm to the food chain. More so, G+ analysis showed that smooth skin was classified as ‘amend’ or ‘proceed with caution’ as it would make the roots more marketable and there would be a high potential for men to displace women in marketing. Therefore there would be need to integrate a program towards empowering women with marketing skills, and training in good post-harvest handling practices. Women should also be provided with access to more seeds, extension workers and other packages developed by agronomists among other mitigation measures. All the other aforementioned characteristics were evaluated as being essential ‘must have’. (2022-10-02)