Headteachers and school feeding programme managers have been advised to use sweet potatoes as an alternative to 'githeri', which is popularly used to feed school children.
Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) programme director Laura Karanja has said that the institute has developed an orange-colour flesh sweet potato that is rich in Vitamin A.
"The orange fleshed sweet potato is rich in Vitamin A which is essential for good vision and strong immune system," Karanja said at Gatuanyaga in Thika East on Tuesday.
She added that areas that were food deficient like the dry Thika East could use sweet potatoes as alternative in schools, noting that they mature faster and can be grown in small portions of land.
"Sweet potatoes also do not attract weevil like grains and can, therefore, be stored efficiently," Karanja said.
The researcher further noted that a number of prisons have embraced sweet potato growing using cheap labour provided by inmates.
Karanja also asked farmers in the area to stop growing sweet potatoes as a 'side crop', saying it is an important root crop in Kenya even for livestock feed as well as in soil conservation.