Biotech Updates

New Varieties of Vitamin A Cassava for Nigerians

December 9, 2011

The Nigerian Government announced the release of three new varieties of yellow cassava biofortified with vitamin A. This is a good news not just to the farmers who need high yielding varieties, but also to the women and children of Nigeria because the crop could provide up to 25% of their daily vitamin A needs.

This new varieties were developed by experts at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Nigerian National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) using conventional breeding techniques. The team is now working on varieties that could provide half of the daily vitamin A requirement. This project is funded by HarvestPlus and other partner international agencies.

Read more details at http://www.harvestplus.org/content/nigeria-releases-new-vitamin-cassava-improve-public-health-millions.