Nufarmer Africa
released by the governments of Zambia and
Nigeria. In Zambia, HarvestPlus has provided
orange maize to more than 10,000 farming households and is now working with
the private sector with the goal of reaching
100,000 famers by 2015. According to Eliab
Simpungwe, HarvestPlus Country Manager
for Zambia, “the orange maize has been embraced by consumers once they have had a
chance to taste it. When they also understand
the benefits of vitamin A in the diets they are
all the more enthusiastic about orange maize.”
The orange maize varieties released are also
high yielding, disease and virus resistant, and
drought tolerant.
The Zambian Government has officially recognized biofortification, which it includes in
the National Food and Nutrition Strategic Plan
for Zambia 2011-2015. Musonda Mofu, Acting
Executive Director of the National Food and
Nutrition Commission in Zambia and who
was also on the study team, said “there are
still many pockets where vitamin A deficiency
remains a problem in Zambia. Food-based approaches such as orange maize can provide
people—especially women and children—
with a good portion of their daily vitamin A
needs through nshima or other traditional
foods made from maize, that we Zambians
eat every day. For us, this is cost-effective and
a safe approach to improving nutrition.”
HarvestPlus and its partners have developed and disseminated other conventionally
bred crops to provide needed vitamins and
minerals in the diet. These are vitamin A cassava (Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria),
vitamin A orange sweet potato (throughout
Sub-Saharan Africa) and iron beans (Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda).
Zinc wheat and rice and iron pearl millet have
been targeted to South Asia.
Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) on behalf of HarvestPlus.
Lack of sufficient vitamin A
blinds up to 500,000 children
annually and