Post by Trade facilitator on Feb 4, 2017 17:48:54 GMT 1
The fight against hunger is seriously growing a notch higher in Nigeria with the existence of model Vitamin A cassava sales outlet in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital launched by Harrose Plus – Nigeria in conjunction with its development partners, Nollywood Producers led by Zeb Ejiro opposite IITA, Ibadan since 2015.
The model outlet is HarvestPlus Strategy to ensure that Nigerians have access to biofotifield Cassava Crop to address the health challenges of vitamin A deficiency manifesting in poor vision, blindness, low immunity and poor body tissue development which commonly affects 30 percent of Nigerian children under 5 years and 20 per cent of pregnant women.
With over 500,000 Nigerian household currently planting and consuming the product across the country, and over 550 commercial farmers on board in the multiplication of the nutritious crop over 1000 hectares of farmland in Nigeria, the need to scale out the product to more Nigerians in other to make the crop accessible to them has since commenced.
In 2015, when it commenced operation, HarvestPlus Country Manager, Paul Ilona promised to establish 300 of the Model Sales Outlets, called ‘Farmers’ Centre’ across so Nigerians can enjoy the health benefits of the crop. ‘’It is therefore a One Stop Sales Outlet that will cater for all the products of vitamin A Cassava – Stems, roots, fufu match, garri, (cake, chin-chin, tidbits and pies).
The launch of the model sales outlet was witnessed by top scientists’ from International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan led by Dr. Elizabeth Parkes, a cassava Breeder, traditional urban from Idiose, Ibadan.
Cassava is an edible wet crop grown in the tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world. It tolerates drought and poor soils. Half a billion people from Africa, Asia and Latin America depend on cassava as a direct starchy staple.
Originating from Latin America, Cassava was first introduced into Africa in the sixteenth century. Today, Africa accounts for over half of the total global production of cassava, with Nigeria the single largest production. More than 100 million Nigerians or 60 percent of the country’s population eat cassava daily in one form or another. Nigerian was also among the earliest countries in which new varieties of cassava that are rich in vitamin A were released to farmers in 2011. To date, more than half a million Nigerian household are growing and eating this conventionally bread nutritious cassava, which can meet-up to about 40 percent of daily needs vitamin A needs for children under age 5.
