WORRIED by the high level of malnutrition in Nigeria, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and HarvestPlus have commercialised Vitamin A Maize and Vitamin A Cassava with a target of reaching 34 million Nigerians in 8 states.
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Netherlands. It is targeting 23 million people in Imo, Oyo, Niger and Kaduna with Vitamin A Maize, and 11 million people in Cross River, Anambra,Osun and Nasarawa states with Vitamin A cassava.
Country Director of HarvestPlus, Yusuf Dollah, during the National Project close-out ceremony of the Commercialisation of Biofortified Crops (CBC) Project, said biofortification is a process in which existing nutrition are complemented.
He said they used food-based approach, where they adopted the normal staple crops grown and consumed in Nigeria to solve nutrition problems.
“So we develop these varieties of crops to have high levels of micronutrients and vitamins so that as we grow them naturally from the farms and we consume, we have access to the essential micronutrients and vitamins for us to live a healthy life.
He said the project was rolled out to ensure that the seed company that multiplies the seeds and sell make some income from it, the agro-dealer in the communities that farmers buy seed from are also able to sell the seeds, then farmers who who looking for a very good certified seeds should also be able to get access to those seeds from their community agro shops.
“Then for the process who is looking for quality raw material to processes product is also able to have it in our normal grid markets.
“So this is what we’ve been able to do in this project, to bring the actors together to strengthen the actors and ensure that everybody is able to make business out from it”, he noted.
Dollah said the implication of the project is creating access, availability an access, “because if you look at the people living in the rural areas, they hardly be able to afford packaged foods, but for you and i that live in urban areas, we can buy the package foods that have these micronutrients fortified into them, but people in rural areas cannot, the only thing they consume is what they produce from their farms”, he added.
Dr Abbas Yusuf, the Deputy Country Director of GAIN Nigeria who represented the Country Director, Micheal Ojo, said one of the things they do on the CBC is to process vitamin A maize and Vitamin A cassava.
He said it is important that when the crops are processed, they are processed in the right way to avoid food poisoning.
“One of the things that we’re doing in GAIN is to ensure that the processed foods will get to the end users with high quality, abs are safe and good to eat by everyone”, he noted.
Speaking on the importance of the project, Dr Yusuf said Nigeria is one of the highest countries that has the highest number of malnutrition.
“One of the sustainable ways of addressing malnutrition is ensuring that a very essential nutrient which is vitamin A, which we see lacking from children, they get together as they grow.
“Biofortification ensures that rather than you beginning to give supplements, you have bio fortified crops like the maize the cassava, which are grown at the community, which means that you harvest cassava, as you harvest maize you already have the right component of vitamin A which can be processed and be eaten locally for the children and for the pregnant women as well” he stated.
The Senior Project Manager Supply Chains for Commercialisation, GAIN Nigeria, Godwin Ehiabhi said in the last three years, they have created a lot of awareness for people to see the importance of consuming biofortified staples.
He said Nigerians eat a lot of heavy starchy foods “we are not really concerned about the nutrient people just want to get their stomach filled up, they are not really concerned what is the content of what they are eating”, he said.
He said with the commercialisation of biofortified food, they promote the consumption of biofortified food for all Nigerians including children.
“We made it so easy because we are focused on the daily food we consume in the country. So if you are used to eating your fufu, this time you are going to eat Vitamin A enriched fufu.l same as maize”, Ehiabhi added.
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