But amongst other things, maize is a major source of everyday nutrition in the region. People consume white maize porridge in large amounts, sometimes eating as much as a half kilo a day.

Conscious of this traditional preference, researchers have bred orange maize to contain more beta-carotene, which the human body converts into vitamin A.

A recent study headed by Dr. Wendy White of the Iowa State University Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition discovered the new vitamin A source.

HarvestPlus, which supported the study, is a programme of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a World Bank-based consortium of 15 research centres worldwide devoted to enhancing agricultural productivity, particularly in developing countries.

In the study, six healthy women were given three different types of maize porridge, one of which was orange maize. The research proved that the beta-carotene from the orange maize was converted at nearly twice the rate previously assumed for maize. The findings were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition earlier this week.

“This study answered a major feasibility concern for the biofortification programme,” said White. “Plant breeders were quickly successful in ramping up the beta-carotene content in the corn, but then the question was, ‘Would it be available to be absorbed and utilized by people?’”

“So what we’ve shown is the beta-carotene is bioavailable to be converted to vitamin A in the body, and much more so than previously expected,” White continued.

In 2012, HarvestPlus intends to introduce the variety into Zambia, where vitamin A deficiency affects over 53 percent of the child population. They speculate that the new crop could account for 30 percent of the daily vitamin A required for children two to six years old and 40 percent for women of child-bearing age.

According to Dr. White, HarvestPlus is already conducting a pilot programme in Zambia to provide young children with the biofortified, beta-carotene maize.

Though the variety is developed for northern climates right now, Dr. Kevin Pixley and the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) are now developing the adaptations for growth in Zambian conditions.

Once fully developed, the maize would be meant for “growing zones” rather than country borders, explained Bonnie McClafferty, HarvestPlus’s chief of development and communications, in an email exchange with IPS.

Though the maize will be introduced within Zambia, she expects the varieties produced will have large spillover benefits for other countries in the region.

While there may be numerous health benefits to bringing orange maize to Zambia, history has shown that introducing new crops is not always an easy task.

A similar attempt to relieve vitamin A deficiencies came in 2000 with the development of ‘golden’ rice by researchers in Switzerland. The 100 million-dollar project was supported by four different public funding institutions.

After much optimism on the discovery’s potential impact on malnutrition in Asia, planting of golden rice was stalled over concerns about growing genetically modified crops. Only this year has one country, the Philippines, begun cultivating the new rice strain. In 1987, a study on soybeans in Nigeria by Agricultural Research for Development in Africa (IITA) revealed that consumer resistance to soybean consumption at the household level arose from a lack of information on the correct processing and cooking methods for the bean.

“Consumer communication is essential for the creation of sustained demand for biofortified maize,” according to HarvestPlus, which said there were two major strategies for popularising its cultivation and consumption.

“The push strategy is supply driven and focuses on the supply of biofortified seed. The pull strategy is demand oriented. By creating effective demand, a chain for the production and consumption of biofortified varieties is put in place.”

Consumer research in Zambia has shown that the current market is dominated by white maize, the preferred ingredient for the widely consumed meal nshima. Yellow maize has been typically rejected because it is associated with drought and food aid.

“If this negative perception carries over to orange maize,” according to HarvestPlus, “there is reason to be skeptical that biofortified maize will find enough of a niche in Sub- Saharan Africa to be able to make an appreciable difference in micronutrient intakes among target populations.”

But findings by HarvestPlus indicate that orange maize has a different connotation in Zambia. “Orange maize is considered to have added value and is clearly distinguished from the less desired yellow maize varieties,” explained McClafferty. “In addition, a nutrition campaign would translate into substantial value added for orange maize which in turn would spur greater adoption among farmers.”

To advance on these findings, HarvestPlus hopes to promote national and local ownership of the crop from the beginning.

“As a truly multidisciplinary approach to agri-health interventions,HarvestPlus invests in research and development of these varieties and does not pass costs on to farmers or the national agricultural sector,” said McClafferty.

source.afrika.no

After several weeks of waiting, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) announced that the 58-year-old Cellou Dalein Diallo of the UFDG, Guinea’s Democratic Forces Union, topped the polls with just about 40 per cent of the votes cast, while the veteran opposition leader, 72-year-old Alpha Conde, leader of the RPG, the Assembly of the People of Guinea, polled about 20 per cent of the votes to come second. Since none of the two scored the mandatory 50 per cent, a run-off was expected to be announced to conclude the process which would lead to the emergence of a democratically-elected president for Guinea. A long period of dithering passed before the 19th of September was named as the date for the run-off.

In preparation for that, the two candidates formed new alliances in an attempt to reach out to other political forces, even when the notorious ethnic divides that dog Guinean politics have remained central to the process. Cellou Dalein Diallo, the leading candidate in the election is Fula, the ethnic group that has the largest population in Guinea and is also economically strongest, but was historically denied access to power from the post-independent period, under Ahmed Sekou Toure. On the other hand, Alpha Conde is Malinke, and they have been the dominant political power group in Guinea, until they were in turn purged by the military dictatorship of Lansana Conte. This struggle for ascendancy has largely marked the political process in the period since the announcement of the date for the presidential run-off.

Last weekend saw a ratcheting up of the political heat when two days of clashes between the two political alliances led to the death of one person and the wounding of 50 in suburbs of Conakry, the capital. In the aftermath, the campaigns were suspended. There was also the controversial sentencing to one year imprisonment of the electoral chief Ben Sekou Sylla by a magistrate in a provincial town, following a petition filed by Alpha Conde. On the day the imprisonment was to be vacated, the electoral chief died in a hospital in Paris. These developments came in the wake of the increasingly partisan stance taken by the interim Prime Minister Jean Marie Dore, who was accused of openly supporting the candidacy of Alpha Conde, and has been attempting to stall the run-off as well as trying to recruit prefects and governors in the country to help manipulate the process to ensure victory for Alpha Conde. This week, Cellou Dalein Diallo called for the resignation of the prime minister because his open partisanship has become untenable, while Guineans in the diaspora also plan to demonstrate as part of calls for the removal of the prime minister.

In all these developments, the military leader General Sekouba Konate has maintained a puzzling silence, which contrasts with his pro-active disposition in the run up to the election of June 26th. That earned him the praises of the international community. However, General Konate is expected to address the nation today during which it is hoped that he will touch all the issues that built up in the run up to the now suspended September 19th run-off election. It is a shame that yesterday night, the Guinean electoral authority suspended the run off and postponed it yet again to the 30th of September. This is an ominous sign that the international community should worry about. The international community, and especially the African Union and ECOWAS, have engaged with the Guinean process since 2008, every step of the way. It is therefore imperative to maintain a sustained pressure on the interim military regime to conclude the electoral process that will lead to the emergence of an elected president. That is what the Guinean people deserve after the nightmare of dictatorship. It is the irreducible minimum to unlock the broad vistas of development for Guinea.

source.afrika.no

It said in its study: “With agricultural growth averaging more than five percent a year during the past 25 years, Ghana is ranked among the top five performers in the world. This has contributed to major reductions in poverty and malnutrition …”

The first Millennium Development Goal, that of eradicating extreme poverty, includes three target areas:

To reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day;

To achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people; and

To reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

The report goes on to say that Ghana is largely self-sufficient with in staple foods.

The Karamojong or Karimojong, an ethnic group of agro-pastoral herders living mainly in the north-east of Uganda. Instead of using notebooks and pens, teachers and students in Karamoja turn to chalk boards, a cheaper and better suited option in this very dry climate.

“Food supply has grown faster than the population has… At the same time, the real price of food has fallen. More accessible food meant that undernourishment went down to eight percent by 2003, from 34 percent in 1991. Child malnutrition has also declined, with the proportion of infants underweight falling from 30 percent in 1988 to 17 percent in 2008.”

According to the study, some challenges, such as production efficiency and making agriculture environmentally sustainable, still remain.

The Overseas Development Institute is an independent think tank on development and humanitarian issues which says it “aims to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods in developing countries.”

source.afrika.no