This 'Vitamin A Fortified Potato', which is already being tested with farmers, joins a series of other products of successful non-GM approaches to tackling malnutrition.

These have received very limited publicity - as opposed to the much hyped (GM) 'golden rice', which made the front cover of Time Magazine in about 2000 but still hasn't made it into the field!

Natural 'golden millet' rivals 'golden rice'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7182

Non-GM maize boosts vitamin A
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7079

Dream (non-GM) rice to curb malnutrition
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7078

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Uganda: Vitamin A Fortified Potato to Combat Blindness
Alfred Wasike, Kampala New Vision (Kampala), November 7 2006 http://allafrica.com/stories/200611080133.html

UGANDANS can now combat malnutrition and blindness.

A team of reseachers at Namulonge and Kabanyoro Research Institute have come up with a Vitamin A fortified sweet potato variety. The sweet potato, which is orange, has carotene, the most important source of Vitamin A. Vitamin A is essential for good eyesight and lack of it can cause blindness or, in milder cases, inability to see or drive at night.

Prof. Patrick Rubaihayo, a plant breeder, who led the team of researchers said the variety was not genetically modified, but a product of pure breeding done in line with the United Nations' Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).

"It is purely a product of normal breeding. We are now testing our product with farmers. It looks ordinary but, it is improved nutritionally," he said.

Rubaihayo said, as scientists, this was their contribution to the realisation of the millennium development goals.

"Our long term objective is to end hunger, though in the short term, we are focussing on raising levels of nutrition among our people," he said.

The product is got by enhancing the quality of the local sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) by fortifying it with Vitamin A.

The millennium goals were adopted five years ago by the world's governments as a blueprint for building a better world in the 21st century. They include hunger, poverty reduction, education, maternal health, gender equality, combating child mortality, AIDS and other diseases.

Rubaihayo said the sweet potato was of great nutritional value to communities that grow and consume it. It yields the highest level of edible energy among other energy givers such as rice, maize and cassava.

The crop is cultivated in over 100 developing countries.

With more than 133 million tonnes in annual production, sweet potatoes rank fifth most important food crop after rice, wheat, maize and cassava, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation. In Africa, sweet potato production is concentrated in countries around the Lake Victoria Crescent where it is the second most important root crop after cassava.

Uganda is one of the biggest producers of sweet potatoes in East and Central Africa, and worldwide, it is the second biggest producer of the crop after China.

The importance of sweet potatoes lies in its ability to grow and produce edible food storage roots in marginal environments where other food crops fail, which makes it a valuable crop for poor farmers.

The crop can also be stored in the soil as a famine reserve and has a high productivity per unit area, which makes it an ideal food security crop. The sweet potato is also increasingly becoming a cash crop in many parts of Uganda.

In the last decade, the importance of the sweet potato increased greatly in East and Central Africa due to pests and disease which have affected the production of alternative staples such as cassava, bananas and maize.

Rubaihayo says increasing sweet potato production will help improve household incomes and food security in Africa.

According to the FAO, despite high potential for food security, research shows that sweet potato yields in the region is below its genetic potential. This is partly due to virus-induced diseases such as sweet potato weevils.

The high incidence of the viral diseases have been attributed to use of infected planting materials and secondary spread of the viruses by vectors, whose occurrence has been reported abundant along the Lake Victoria Crescent. The vegetative propagation, usually by taking cuttings from a previous crop, also increases the risk of build-up of viruses. To reduce the virus build-up, use of virus-tested planting materials is recommended.

Rubaihayo said millions of women and children in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from Vitamin A deficiency. Apart from the high energy and carotene contents, sweet potatoes are a good source of iron and zinc.

About 21% of children under five years worldwide have Vitamin A deficiency. Iron deficiency is also most prevalent among women of childbearing age in developing countries.

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