New Vitamin A-fortified Cassava Released in Nigeria
December 16, 2011| |
Vitamin A deficiency has been a prevalent problem in Africa affecting 20% of pregnant women and 30% of children under five in Nigeria. Symptoms of Vitamin A deficiency include lowering of immunity and impaired vision which leads to blindness and in extreme cases, death. It is thus timely that the Nigerian government approved the release of three new vitamin A-enriched ‘yellow' cassava varieties: UMUCASS 36 (TMS 01/1368), UMUCASS 37 (TMS 01/1412), and UMUCASS 38 (TMS 01/1371) developed through traditional breeding, by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria and the Nigerian National Root Crops Research Institute.
"This marks a new dawn in Nigeria's cassava industry as it is the first set of nutritious cassava developed and released in Nigeria," said Chiedozie Egesi, Head of Cassava Breeding of the Nigerian National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI). This work is funded by HarvestPlus in partnership with International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), and various Nigerian Government agencies.
See the news release at http://www.iita.org/news-frontpage-feature2
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