HarvestPlus Introduces Orange Maize in Zambia
A renown agriculture company, HarvestPlus has improved on maize in Zambia by introducing orange maize which has led to improvement in the lives of those who eat it..
According to HarvestPlus, a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has established that ‘orange’ vitamin A maize increases vitamin A storage in the body. This maize has been conventionally bred (non-GMO) to have higher levels of beta-carotene, a naturally occurring plant pigment that the body then converts into vitamin A.
Lack of sufficient vitamin A blinds up to 500,000 children annually and increases the risk of death from disease (such as diarrhea in children). Vitamin A deficiency is widely prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Foods that are a good sources of vitamin A, such as orange fruits, dark leafy vegetables, or meat, are not always available, or may be too expensive in some regions. In many African countries, people eat large amounts of staple foods like cassava or maize.
“ I’m confident that orange maize would be especially effective in increasing body stores of vitamin A in populations suffering from vitamin A deficiency,” said Sherry Tanumihardjo, lead scientist.
Several orange maize varieties have been 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 farmers 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.
“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,” said Musonda Mofu, Acting Executive Director of the National Food and Nutrition Commission in Zambia and who was also on the study team.
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.