A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN HUMAN NUTRITION OF THE SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE. MOROGORO, TANZANIA. 2017In developing countries like Tanzania, vitamin A deficiency remains a public health concern, due to monotonous, cereal-based diets that lack diversity. Evidence from study on Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes (OFSP) consumption for improved nutrition in Gairo shows that the diets of a large percentage of households are deficient in vitamin A. Overall objective of the study was to increase contribution of sweetpotato particularly OFSP as a component of dietary intake on improved nutrition in Gairo district. It was observed that there were differences in household-level 24 hours dietary recall that was taken for two non-consecutive days (i.e., during weekday and weekend) whereas in Meshugi was (n=42 households), Ngiloli (n=44 households) and Ihenje (n= 45 households). Of the commonly grown cultivars, Kabode and Mataya had the highest content of β-carotene (878.31 and 426.39 µg/g) respectively and lowest were Naspot 1 and Polista (9.99 and 5.40 µg/g). The study revealed that 59.5% of the respondents’ households cultivated non-OFSP while 10.7% solely grew OFSP and 29.8% cultivated both. Only 16% of the visited respondents had knowledge on how to store sweetpotato. Most of complementary foods given to children aged 6-24 months did not meet their RDA. Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) across villages during weekdays and weekends differed statistically during weekdays (p<0.001) and during weekends (p<0.01). There was higher variation of per capita vitamin A intake during weekdays compared to weekends. OFSP and vitamin A food rich sources were consumed inadequately. Results of sensory evaluation showed that, the highest overall acceptability of the formulated food types was recorded on MAKAG2 (7.53) and the lowest (6.69) MAG2. The study concluded that there was inadequate consumption of OFSP among visited households and limited dietary diversity among the consumed foods. It is recommended that OFSP should be promoted to increase consumption and advocate food diversification.