A panel focused on moving research success to scale brought together professionals for a powerful discussion about the ways that academic breakthroughs can be translated into tangible change at the Horticulture Research for Development Conference, "Colorful Harvest: From Feeding to Nourishing a Growing World," held March 26-27, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

The panel was moderated by Julie Howard, Senior Adviser (Non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Panel speakers included:

• Nora Lapitan, Research Division Chief for USAID's Bureau for Food Security
• Anna-Marie Ball, Chief of Staff and Director of External Affairs for HarvestPlus at the International Food Policy Research Institute
• Juile DeGennaro, Sales and Marketing Manager at Store It Cold, LLC

This webpage shares two presentations created by Anna-Marie Ball and Julie DeGennaro for their introductions. Not all speakers used PowerPoint slides.

Anna-Marie Ball: Moving research success to scale, learning from the orange fleshed sweet potato

Ball shared some lessons learned from the successful scaling efforts of orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) by HarvestPlus. Nutrition messages focused on how OFSP can reduce the risk of Vitamin A deficiency, and a marketing campaign used what made OFSP different - the color orange - to build awareness of the importance of Vitamin A generally and of OFSP being a significant source. 

Ball also shared with the audience an earl glimpse of materials for the new IronWorks campaign, also from HarvestPlus, which focuses on iron-rich biofortified crops. In sub-Saharan Africa, 19 percent of women of reproductive age are anemic due to iron deficiency. The new campaign emphasizes that iron deficiency is a serious global problem, and that biofortified staple crops offer a practical, food-based solution. In particular, HarvestPlus is working with partners to develop and promote varieties of beans and pearl millet that are biofortified with iron.

Julie DeGennaro: Store It Cold and the CoolBot

DeGennaro provided an introduction to the CoolBot, produced by Store It Cold, which was created for small-scale farmers by a small-scale farmer. It is a do-it-yourself walk-in cooler that offers cost savings compared to traditional coolers. More than 50,000 CoolBots have been sold and shipped to 70 countries. 

Store It Cold has partnered with UC Davis, USAID and Feed the Future to help reduce postharvest losses internationally. Business partners based in Honduras include Universidad Zamorano, Walmart and Hortifruti, and Banrural. Partners based in Guatemala include Industrias Servin, Fundación Genesis Empresarial and Expo AgroVision. 

Find out more about the Horticulture Innovation Lab's work with the CoolBot.