Cassava research staff receive ‘royalty free’ variety
increasing nutrients in local cassava varieties will make it both accessible and affordable for communities to improve their own nutritionSPECIAL REPORT BY XINHUA CORRESPONDENT Peter Mutai
CASSAVA NEWS to follow Coastweek.com NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Kenya’s cassava research has received a financial boost in support of phase II of Bio Cassava Plus (BC Plus), an innovative project that aims to reduce malnutrition by increasing the nutritional value of cassava, a staple crop consumed by millions of Kenyans. The funding 8.3 million U.S. dollars that has been advanced by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) through Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is to help develop cassava with enhanced nutrients.
“The efforts are aimed at bettering nutrition and enable people live better productive lives,” Dr. Simon Gichuki, Kari’s Biotechnology Director and also the projects principal investigator said late Thursday.
He said that millions of Kenyans, especially children lack essential vitamins and minerals thus contributing to childhood deaths, diseases and blindness.
Gichuki said that the Bio cassava plus is aimed at enhancing cassava with carotene, iron and protein and will be available to farmers without any royalty fees. “Under this project farmers will freely multiply, save and share their planting materials,” Gichuki noted.
Gichuki observed that millions of Kenyans eat cassava two times a day, hence forcing researchers to focus on increasing the levels of pro-vitamin A and iron in this familiar food to provide them with healthier food that will enhance their diet and improve livelihoods.
He revealed that phase I of the project that was done in the country exceeded all targets to date. “Using the tools of modern biotechnology we were able to develop cassava plants that are 30 times as much beta-carotene, four times as much iron, and four times as much protein as traditional cassava,” he added.
These increased levels reflect what is needed to provide the minimum daily dietary requirements for a child.
According to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation President for Global Development Program Ms. Sylvia Burwell, the health of consumers will improve greatly once farmers adapt to the new technology.
“The variety is to help make substantial improvement to people’s lives,” she observes. “Beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A, and iron are contained in various foods today, but those foods are scarce, unavailable, or too expensive for many people in Kenya,” said Dr. Martin Fregene, the project director.
He said that increasing nutrients in local cassava varieties will make it both accessible and affordable for communities to improve their own nutrition.
According to statistics at Kenya’s Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, approximately 30 percent of Kenyan pre-school children are vitamin A deficient, in addition to suffering from inadequate iron and protein.
Effects of iron deficiency include anaemia, death for women in childbirth; and inadequate levels of protein causes stunting and wasting in children below the age of five
Cassava roots are consumed freshly boiled, or processed into a wide variety of granules, pastes and flours.
Additionally, tubers can be left in the ground for up to three years, so if drought or disease kills off other crops, farmer’s families can still fend off starvation by eating cassava.
The project will also be carried out in Nigeria, one of the countries where people consume cassava in large numbers.
Cassava a popular crop in western and coastal region of Kenya has in the past faced attacks from viruses that have reduced its production.
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Financial boost for further cassava research
NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- In northern parts of Kenya most children aged two years weigh between five-six kilograms.
This according to medical personnel is an abnormal occurrence that they attribute to lack of iron that causes deficiency in anaemia, death for women in childbirth.
This condition also leads to inadequate levels of protein that causes stunting and wasting in children below the age of five.
In Africa people often eat cassava two or three times a day, but it contains no vitamin A or iron. As a result, many people suffer from disease caused by a lack of vitamins and other important nutrients.
But this bad picture is set to change following an advancement of 8.3 million U.S. dollars research on cassava that is expected to come up with bio-Cassava, a biofortified variety of cassava that have enormous potential to help millions of people live healthy lives in Kenya and Nigeria.
Bio-Cassava is an opportunity to help people, especially in rural areas throughout Kenya. It will give people vitamins they need through a food they already grow and eat.
The funding has been advanced by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) through Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to help develop cassava with enhanced nutrients.
Known as bio-Cassava Plus (BC Plus), an innovative project that aims to reduce malnutrition by increasing the nutritional value of cassava, a staple crop consumed by millions of Kenyans, the project is set to be launched soon. “The efforts are aimed at bettering nutrition and is a big boost to agricultural research in this country,” said Simon Gichuki, Kari’s Biotechnology Director and also the projects Principal Investigator observes.
Gichuki notes that millions children in Africa, Kenya included lack essential vitamins and minerals thus contributing to early childhood deaths, diseases and blindness.
Gichuki said that BC Plus is aimed at enhancing cassava with carotene, iron and protein and will be available to farmers without paying any royalty fees. “The project will use a range of crop breeding techniques, including transgenic approaches,” he notes.
According to President for Global Development Programme of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Ms. Sylvia Burwell, the health of consumers will improve greatly once farmers adapt to the new technology.
To date, the foundation’s Agricultural Development initiative has contributed approximately 1.7 billion dollars to provide millions of small farmers in the developing world the tools and opportunities they need to boost their yields, increase their incomes, and build better, healthier lives.
The Project Director Martin Fregene observes that the beta- carotene, the precursor to vitamin A, and iron are contained in various foods today, but those foods are scarce, unavailable, or too expensive for many people in Kenya.
He says that increasing nutrients in local cassava varieties will make it both accessible and affordable for communities to improve their own nutrition.
According to statistics at Kenya’s Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, approximately 30 percent of Kenyan pre-school children are vitamin A deficient, in addition to suffering from inadequate iron and protein.
Effects of iron deficiency include anaemia, death for women in childbirth; and inadequate levels of protein causes stunting and wasting in children below the age of five.
Cassava roots are consumed freshly boiled, or processed into a wide variety of granules, pastes and flours.
Additionally, tubers can be left in the ground for up to three years, so if drought or disease kills off other crops, farmer’s families can still fend off starvation by eating cassava.
Cassava a popular crop in western and coastal region of Kenya has in the past faced attacks from viruses that have reduced its production.
But through interventions by Kari and development partners, the problem has since been brought under control.
Biotechnology allows for precise adjustments to be made that result in improved micronutrient levels.
The approach is a sustainable way to eliminate global health crises caused by low nutrition.
While most people in wealthy nations have easy access to a wide variety of nutritious foods, vitamin supplements, and fortified processed foods, many in poorer nations, majority of whom live in rural areas do not.
They either cannot afford or lack access to the foods they need to avoid malnutrition and its devastating impacts on health.
BC Plus is the largest coordinated research development and deployment program funded for cassava to date involving more than 25 research investigators located on five continents.
Cassava, a staple crop consumed by more than 250 million people in Africa, offers limited nutritional value, leaving both children and adults at risk of severe health problems.
Globally, vitamin A deficiency alone accounts for 670,000 childhood deaths each year and causes 350,000 cases of childhood blindness.
CASSAVANEWS to follow Slowfood . Efforts to expand the use of genetically modified (GM) crops in Asia and Africa were given a major boost last week with the announcement of a significant investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has pledged $US18.6 million. 
