US pledges more support for Nigeria’s agric sector

PUNCH

Regional Agricultural Counselor in Nigeria for the US Department of Agriculture, Mr Kurt Seifarth, on Thursday restated his government’s commitment to supporting Nigeria in the development of her agriculture sector.

Seifarth disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on the sidelines of a one-day interactive conference with Nigeria’s retail food business operators.

Good News: AU Leaders’ Summit in Malabo, Pledge to Do Agric!

AUTHOR

Nachilala Nkombo8 July 2014 11:42AM UTC

One.org
Our voices were heard in Malabo, we made a difference!

On January 20, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, we launched the Do Agric, It Payscampaign. The campaign called on African governments to keep their promises to invest in agriculture and support smallholder farmers when they meet at the AU Heads Of state summit in June in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

ORANGE FLESHED SWEET POTATO (OFSP)

      

OFSP

Nigeria is home to over 50% of West Africa’s population,  70% of the population is below the poverty line (2007 est.). Malnutrition is widespread, with over 41% percent of children under five years of age are stunted – i.e. chronically malnourished  and the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency at 29.5%, a level of public health concern (Maziya Dixon et al., 2005).  To reduce high levels of malnutrition that leads to  increased child mortality, reduced learning, low economic capacity and effectively stunt economic development.

Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD)  in collaboration with International Potato Center (CIP) introduced the Orange-fleshed varieties (OFSP) that are extremely rich in beta-carotene, with the precursor for vitamin A which is better than White-fleshed varieties that have no beta-carotene. Among OFSP, a useful rule is: the deeper the intensity of the orange color, the greater the amount of beta-carotene.

OFSP varieties that can supply the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A for children and non-lactating women contain (300-700 μg retinol activity equivalents) OFSP is a high yielding crops with two different variety currently released after due research work by NRCRI Umudike, Abia State, It has yielding  potential of up to 25 tons per hectare compare with the low yielding variety of white fleshed of 5 ton/ha.