Kampala — Ugandans will soon crunch starchy matooke biscuits while feeding on a highly nutritious product with vitamin A.

Dr. Andrew Kiggundu, a leading biotechnologist working with the National Banana Research Programme (NBRP) at Kawanda has said.

The NBRP under the National Crop Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) has applied to Uganda National Council of Science and Technology (UNCST)

to conduct a new confined banana field trial to improve its micronutrient content of Vitamin A and iron in cultivars Nakinyika matooke) and Sukaali ndizi (sweet banana).

More than 36% of children below three years in Uganda are malnourished, while 10% of mothers suffer from chronic under-nutrition, partly caused by mainly consuming starchy staples like bananas and cassava.

The Vitamin A gene infused in the banana plants was got from a banana plant species called 'Asupina' from the islands of south-east Asian and was found to have high levels of Vitamin A content.

'Ferritin', a gene got from soybean that is responsible for iron storage in tissues was also inserted.

Both genes are good and safe becasue they are from plants that are ordinarily part of human food.

"In Africa, over 100 million people depend on bananas as a staple food," said Hartmann, director general of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture.

Uganda produces 10 million tonnes of bananas annually, with an estimated value of $1.7 billion, making it the world's second largest banana producer after India.