To tackle these challenges, HarvestPlus and its partners are developing six micronutrient-rich staple food crops for Africa and South Asia. These micronutrient-rich crops, developed through bio-fortification, are being released in countries with similar agro-ecologies.
Crop bio-fortification implies infusion of necessary vitamins and other nutrients into a crop. Advantages of bio-fortification of crops include reaching rural communities often missed out in other nutrition interventions such as supplementation and fortification; one up-front investment in breeding the nutrient into a crop variety for subsequent multiplication and use of staple foods already eaten by the people.
According to the Country Director for Nigeria, Mr Paul Ilona, “HarvestPlus focuses on three critical micronutrients recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the most lacking in the diet of the poor.”
He said the micronutrients include Vitamin A, zinc and iron. He said “about 127 million pre-school children are vitamin A deficient; about one-third of the world’s population is at high risk of zinc deficiency and iron deficiency is the most common micronutrient deficiency in the world,” adding that anaemia, often caused by iron deficiency, affects more than 1.6 million people globally.
In December 2011, the Federal Government approved the release of three yellow varieties of cassava that had been fortified with Vitamin A, given the importance of cassava to the people of the country, in order to tackle the challenges. The first wave of yellow cassava, he said, contains enough Vitamin A to provide 25 per cent of the daily needs of children and women.
Ilona said cassava is chosen first as the fortified crop being multiplied because almost all farming households in Nigeria produce and consume cassava or cassava products, with higher percentage of the urban dwellers also consuming one or two of the products, giving HarvestPlus the opportunity to tackle hidden hunger and vitamin deficiency in the country with pro-Vitamin A cassava.
With the help of the government and donors, he said, HarvestPlus had been able to distribute pro-Vitamin A cassava stems to 90,000 households in Nigeria, with the target of reaching no fewer than 100,000 households by December this year.
“Although Vitamin A can be found in many foods, including green leafy vegetables, carrots, mango, and eggs, these are rarely eaten in the quantity needed. So, strategies to provide additional Vitamin A exist. To address Vitamin A deficiency (VAD), Nigeria provides Vitamin A supplements to children less than five years during immunisation days and has mandated the fortification of wheat and maize flours, vegetable oil and sugar with Vitamin A since 2000.
“The development and dissemination of the pro-Vitamin A cassava has complemented current efforts to address VAD by delivering Vitamin A through a staple food that consumers eat every day in Nigeria,” Ilona said.
HarvestPlus country director also revealed that similar efforts were being simultaneously made in other parts of Africa to reduce VAD. Iron beans, he said, is being multiplied in Rwanda, where the crop is widely eaten daily; pro-Vitamin A potato is being multiplied and released to households in Uganda, and pro-Vitamin A maize is being multiplied in Zambia, where they are commonly eaten.
He added that the cassava being multiplied in Nigeria had been distributed in about 15 states of the federation, more than initial plan of zonal introduction and distribution of the stems.
A farm supervisor at HarvestPlus stem multiplication farm, said the varieties are high-yielding and virus-resistant, saying there was a record of a stick of the variety yielding 61KGs of fresh tubers of cassava.
HarvestPlus country director reiterated the commitment of the United States of America-based group towards tackling VAD, hunger and poverty in Nigeria and other parts of the Africa.
Below is the Video of the cultivation of Vitamin A Cassava by Mr. Andy Ochumba one of the OUTGROWERS of this unique stem and also a Life and Health Coach with Trevo
video = https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202329887757805&set=vb.1510235237&type=2&theater
https://www.facebook.com/trevobenefits
