An international agro-based organisation, HarvestPlus Nigeria, on Saturday, December 12 said it distributed vitamin A cassava stems to no fewer than 700, 000 farmers in 25 states in the country in 2015.

The HarvestPlus Country Manager, Dr. Paul Ilona, who disclosed this in Ibadan at a news conference, said the farmers received the cassava stems and planted them.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that HarvestPlus is an international organisation leading a global effort to improve nutrition, by developing and disseminating staple food crops that are rich in vitamins and minerals.It also aims at providing global leadership in bio-fortification evidence and technology.Ilona said the beneficiary farmers cut across 25 states in the country, including Oyo, Imo and Benue states.
He noted that the organisation owned 6,000 hectares of land on which it planned to plant vitamin A cassava with 300 points of sales, as part of its objective to get Nigerians nourished with Vitamin-fortified staple foods and crops.

“We estimate that up to 3 million Nigerians now have access to vitamin A cassava,’’ the country manager said.

Ilona emphasised that part of the major essential nutrients for the body are zinc, iron and vitamin A, saying that the organisation focused on those nutrients in the process of bio-fortification.

“Our food-based approach relies on familiar staple foods that people already eat regularly, and that can be part of other efforts to improve nutrition, such as dietary diversification,” he said.

The country manager explained that the organisation uses the natural breeding process, adding that its products are natural and not genetically modified.

“We have 4, 350 varieties of vitamin A cassava and none of them is genetically modified, so people are free to consume them.We have a lot of products from vitamin A cassava like the vitamin A cassava moimoi, fortified with beans and the cassava custard, which is good for children.

“Some others are the cassava leaf tea and flour and vitamin A yellow fufu/garri, which is natural, without additional oil added to it during processing. They are all in the market,” he said.

Ilona said that HarvestPlus was creating awareness about its mission through the print and electronic media – radio and television.

“In the bid to let people know about these products, we have partnered with Hollywood stars and produced four movies called: Yellow Cassava, Dada Oni Paki, AkpuEbi and Sunkani.

“We hope to produce new varieties of vitamin A cassava, maize, iron bean, zinc rice, and so on, to reach more farmers and people next year and beyond,” the country manager added. (NAN)