James Emejo in Abuja
HarvestPlus Nigeria in collaboration with the federal government and development partners, has unveiled a nutritional guide to help Nigerians reduce the risks of malnutrition, which remained a national challenge.
Speaking at the launch of the book, “Biofortified Crops on my Plate”, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, hailed the intervention as an unprecedented effort to solve the nutritional crisis in the country.
The 201-page publication is the first national recipe book including nutrient-enriched foods and features a collection of practical and traditional dishes that have been cleverly adapted to provide added nutrition and fight malnutrition through biofortified foods.
Chief Nutritionist, HarvestPlus, Erick Boy, said, “This recipe book is a testament to the power of food to nourish and heal, and we hope it will inspire people to incorporate nutritious biofortified crops into their diets and improve their health and well-being.”
Developed by HarvestPlus in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Federal Ministry of Health, and its development partners, the recipes include popular Nigerian biofortified staples such as vitamin A cassava, vitamin A maize, and vitamin A orange sweet potato, which have been shown to reduce micronutrient deficiencies and improve the health of women and children when eaten regularly.
Essentially, biofortification uses conventional breeding to develop food crops that provide more of the essential vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) required for good health.
In Nigeria, micronutrient malnutrition—known as hidden hunger—remains a public health challenge to be addressed as approximately one in three preschool-aged children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, and over 50 per cent of women are anaemic, according to HarvestPlus.
It explained that traditional white non-biofortified cassava, maize, and sweet potatoes are among Nigeria’s most consumed staple foods, but are low in essential micronutrients like vitamin A.
Thus, the adoption of yellow and orange biofortified varieties in their place in Nigeria had led to these crops being perceived not only as good sources of energy but as nutritious foods with proven health benefits.
The book represented efforts of HarvestPlus and its partners to provide nutritious and tasty ways for families to incorporate nutrient-enriched crops into their daily meals.
Nonetheless, the minister, who was represented at the launch by the ministry’s Director, Tree Crops, Mr. Ukattah Chukwuemeka, said the government within the context of the new National Agricultural Technology Innovative Policy, was prioritising nutrition.
He said the policy seeks to achieve optimal nutritional status for all Nigerians by accelerating the scaling up of priority and high impact nutrition sensitive interventions.
