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  6. Opportunities for biofortification of Cassava for Sub-Saharan Africa: The BioCassava Plus program

Opportunities for biofortification of Cassava for Sub-Saharan Africa: The BioCassava Plus program

File(s)
nabc22_10_Fregene.pdf (90.9 KB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/51328
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NABC Report 22: Promoting Health by Linking Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition
Author
Fregene, M.
Sayre, R.
Fauquet, C.
Anderson, P.
Taylor, N.
Cahoon, E.
Siritunga, D.
Manary, M.
Abstract

Cassava is an important staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa produced over 117 million tons of fresh roots of cassava in 2008, of which 95% was consumed as food; the starch provides >25% of dietary energy for an estimated 200 million Africans. Frequent consumers of cassava are at greater risk for malnutrition than consumers of other diets. A nutrition survey in cassava-consuming areas of Nigeria and Kenya revealed inadequate intake of vitamin A in 83% and 41% and inadequate iron intake in 43% and 78% of pre-school-aged children. Biofortification can remediate these nutritional deficiencies and once developed through breeding and genetic engineering will be self-sustaining, but it requires a substantial initial investment in research and dissemination, it is self-sustaining. BioCassava Plus is a cassava-biofortification project at the Donald Danforth Center.

Date Issued
2010
Publisher
NABC
Keywords
Agricultural biotechnology
•
human health
•
nutrition
•
food production
•
diet
•
functional foods
•
product choices
•
product claims
•
food labeling
•
pharmabiotics
•
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Type
book chapter

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