Govt supports Bio fortification of crops: Shiri

07 Sep, 2018 - 14:09 0 Views
Govt supports Bio fortification of crops: Shiri

eBusiness Weekly

Elita Chikwati

HARARE – Government is in support of production of high nutrition crops (bio-fortified) crops particularly the high iron bean as this promotes food and nutrition security and presents business and income generation opportunities especially for women and youths.

Bio fortification is the process of breeding crops to increase their nutritional value.

Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Perrance Shiri revealed this at the launch of the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation High Iron bean (HIB) project tilted “Promoting High Iron Beans in Zimbabwe”.

The project is being funded by African Development Bank in collaboration with the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).

The Department of Research and specialist Services is the local lead institution.

The project is being implemented in eight African countries namely Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya.

In a speech read on his behalf by the secretary Mr Ringson Chitsiko, Minister Shiri said the bean project was targeting 200 000 households and would increase bean production area, business opportunities, income generation as well as enhanced nutrition and food security.

He said the project was in line with the Government’s National Food Fortification strategy that was launched in 2015 to reduce the prevalence of micro nutrient malnutrition.

“Several approaches such as genetic bio-fortification dietary diversification and nutrient supplementation have been proposed to reduce the prevalence of micronutrient malnutrition in vulnerable communities in Zimbabwe.

“We acknowledge that no single intervention strategy is effective, therefore the various interventions that will be implemented by the project are highly commendable,” he said.

Minister Shiri commended the TAAT project for emphasising more on genetic bio-fortification had the capacity to reach out to a large number of rural poor households living in remote areas with no access to commercially marketed fortified food products.

“It is a cost effective method of reaching tens of millions of vulnerable communities on a sustainable basis. It is built on what poor households produce and consume, low recurrent costs due to one-time investment when developing cultivars that fortify themselves and it is environmentally friendly,” he said.

The Minister expressed concern over the low bean production in Zimbabwe which he said was far below the national demand.

“The national demand for beans is over 90 000 tonnes while the national production is approximately 26 000 tonnes meaning that we have a deficit in the country. The deficit could be explained by the gap between the research yields of three tonnes per hectare and the national average yield of 0,7 tonnes per hectare,” he said.

He said bean production was affected by diseases, drought and poor soil fertility.

Minister Shiri called on relevant stakeholders to increase awareness on the high iron beans so that many people could benefit from the technology.

“Efforts to disseminate seed based and other improved technologies must be redoubled since this is the way to reach poor and marginalised farmers with little exposure to new technologies.

“Therefore wide scale demonstrations through public-private partnerships would play a key role in creating awareness in Zimbabwe. Also critical is the facilitation and increased engagement of various actors including the private sector in seed production and dissemination to accelerate the pipeline of various seed grades from breeder seed to certified seed,” he said.

He commended local companies for showing interest in processing the high iron beans into various nutritious bean based products such as complementary flours for children and expectant mothers.

He said farmers required appropriate common bean cultivars that maintain superior yields, reduce production costs, improve input responsiveness and offer long term and sustainable production opportunities that protect and enhance the natural resource base.

Dry beans are one of the preferred grain legumes in Zimbabwe due to their ability to enrich the soil by fixing atmosphere nitrogen, high nutritive value, short maturity period of less than 95 days long storage, versatility through ease of its conversion to cash, and its compatibility with other important crops such as maize.

Beans are one of the best sources of iron and zinc two of the most common nutritional deficiencies in Zimbabwe.

Anaemia, stunting, inter alia, intellectual and physical maturity delays and deficits are the consequences of iron and zinc deficiencies.

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