Africa: Biofortification Offers Hope for Africa's Malnourished

Many people who live in Lira district in northern Uganda consider Perpetua Okao a farmer and a life saver--and it is easy to know why. Her neighbour's son was malnourished and often sickly. But after feeding him a diet of vitamin A-rich orange-fleshed sweet potato, the boy's health improved dramatically in just a few days. Ms. Okao is among some 126,000 Ugandan farmers growing the orange-fleshed sweet potato, a new variety of potato enriched with vitamin A through biofortification.

Biofortification is a process by which crops are bred in a way that increases their nutritional value. The idea behind biofortification is to breed nutritious plants, a process which experts consider much cheaper than adding micronutrients to already processed foods. It is a smart method to fight malnutrition, say agriculturists and nutritionists. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a UN food agency, considers malnutrition--caused by a lack of essential micronutrients such as iodine, iron, zinc and vitamin A in diets--a threat to millions of African lives.

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