Zimbabwe promotes production and consumption of vitamin A orange maize

By Wallace Mawire Zimbabwe’s ministries of Agriculture, Health and Child Care are working with the Livelihoods and Food Security Programme (LFSP) funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to promote production and consumption of vitamin A orange maize. According to Duncan Katuramu, Independent Communications Consultant, LFSP Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation the LFSP is receiving technical support from HarvestPlus, and working in partnership with Prime SeedCo established a vitamin A orange maize commercial roadside demonstration at Glenara Estate in Mazowe district of the country. On 6 June, 2017 a demonstration harvesting field day was held at Glenara Estate in Mazowe District to demonstrate the yield potential of the vitamin A orange maize variety as a way of promoting intensive commercial production of the variety to ensure increased availability of biofortified maize crop products for wider consumption in Zimbabwe. The objective of the demonstration was to showcase the agronomic and yield potential of ZS242, an orange maize hybrid developed by the ministry of Agriculture Department of Research and Specialist Services (DR&SS) and marketed by Prime SeedCo. Nutritional benefits of consuming the variety to prevent vitamin A deficiency were also highlighted. The event offered biofortification as a complementary approach to fighting micronutrient malnutrition in Zimbabwe, demonstrated the yield potential of vitamin A orange maize varieties and the role they can play in contributing to national food and nutrition security, marketed the orange maize variety to commercial maize producers, government and developmental programs, maize contractors, and other maize value chain players and contributed to the national thrust by government to eradicate malnutrition among Zimbabweans. The two and half hour event saw invited key stakeholders participate in the harvesting, weighing and assessment of the yield potential of the vitamin A orange maize hybrid variety - ZS242, grown on a 1,4 ha as a roadside crop demonstration at Glenara Estate. It was followed by remarks from key stakeholders on the ZS242 maize variety and its contribution to the national food and nutrition security agenda. Key stakeholders who attended the event included farmers, government agriculture ministry, ministry of health, Food Nutrition Council, Gender and women empowerment officials, seed companies, millers, donors, UN agencies, NGOs, consumers, seed distributors and financial institutions. The demonstration offered stakeholders an appreciation of the maize value chain of the yield potential and the role of vitamin A orange maize in contributing to national food and nutrition security, appreciation by farmers of the potential role that can be played by the short-medium maturing and high yielding variety in their maize-wheat rotation and appreciation by consumers of the nutritional potential of the vitamin A orange maize variety and how it fits into their diets. Biofortification is the process of increasing the level of vitamins and minerals in a crop, through plant breeding or agronomic practices, so that when consumed regularly, nutritional status is measurably improved. Biofortification is complimentary to other interventions like industrial fortification, supplementation and dietary diversification in the fight against micronutrient deficiency. Several biofortified crop varieties have been bred and these include vitamin A orange maize and high iron and zinc beans. These two crops are being promoted in Zimbabwe in response to vitamin A deficiency, with a national prevalence of over one-third of children under the age of 5 years, and 1 in 5 women of child bearing age. For iron deficiency, current prevalent rates of anaemia among children under the age of 5 years and women of child bearing age (15-49 years) are 36.8% and 27% respectively according to the Zimbabwe Demographic Health (ZDHS) survey of 2015.