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Food security: Nigeria distributes cassava stems to farmers

By on August 4, 2013

Nigeria, in partnership with HarvestPlus, has commenced the distribution of pro-vitamin A cassava stems to farmers.

A statement obtained from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture on Friday said this was part of agricultural reforms aimed at cutting down on the number of persons afflicted with vitamin A deficiency as well as improving food security.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akin Adesina, and the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Godswill Akpabio, jointly inaugurated the dissemination of the cassava planting materials in Uyo on Tuesday, the statement said.

HarvestPlus and partners, it stressed, planned to ensure that over two million farmers had access to vitamin A cassava stems for planting across the major cassava producing states with initial emphasis on Abia, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Imo and Oyo States as regional hubs.

The HarvestPlus Country Manager, Paul Ilona, said the strategy was to distribute 300,000 bundles of stems to 100,000 households in Nigeria in 2013 alone, and support the emergence of a sustainable seed system to make the stems available to all farmers in the years ahead.

More than 40,000 traceable farmers in Akwa Ibom, Abia, Anambra, Benue, Edo, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti and Rivers states received the stems in June and July, while more states would have them before the end of August, the statement said.

“This is possible because over 500 hectares of the vitamin A varieties were proactively multiplied in 2012,” it added.

It reported researchers as saying the use of pro-vitamin A cassava to tackle vitamin A deficiency was an excellent option because of the easy availability and accessibility of cassava in most rural communities.

It also reported the HarvestPlus Director, Dr. Howarth Bouis, as saying vitamin A deficiency hurt the health of about 20 per cent of pregnant women and 30 per cent of children below the age of five.

Bouis said the report was the outcome of a recent nutrition survey mandated by the Federal Government.

The report noted that people afflicted with vitamin A deficiency would suffer either from night blindness, stunting, low immunity or even death.

The Deputy Director-General, Partnerships and Capacity Development, the IITA, Dr Kenton Dashiell, said, “The World Health Organisation estimates that about 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight.”

Efforts by the government to solve this malady, according to the statement, involve the fortification of products such as wheat, soft drinks, flour, and sugar with vitamin A.

It also noted the bio-fortification of cassava aimed to amplify the efforts, by taking vitamin A to people who might not be able to afford the cost of fortified foods.

Commonly referred to as yellow cassava, the pro-vitamin A cassava varieties, it recalled, were products of decades of conventional breeding efforts by researchers at IITA in partnership with the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, with funds from HarvestPlus.

Dashiell said, “The development of pro-vitamin A is a big milestone and working with our partners, NRCRI and HarvestPlus, we hope to develop more nutritious crops that will enhance food security.”

The Executive Director, NRCRI, Dr JC Okonkwo, called on farmers to cultivate the varieties and consume them sufficiently, especially for children under five, and pregnant women for better health and nutrition.

He also encouraged farmers to give the stems to their neighbours at the time of harvest to ensure rapid dissemination of the planting materials.

Besides improving the health and nutrition of the people, the cultivation of the varieties, he said, could provide jobs, improve incomes, and lift poor households out of poverty.

 

 

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