By Goddie Ofose
Senior Correspondent, Lagos
Vitamin A fortified cassava stems were recently distributed to over 2000 farmers in Koton Karfe Local Government in Kogi State by HarvestPlus-Nigeria and its partner, Envoy Consulting, in a flag off ceremony graced by Captain Idris Wada, the Executive Governor of the State and hosted by the Ohimegye of Koton Karfe, Abdulrazak Sani Isa Koto, in his palace.
Wada
The distribution of the enhanced quality cassava stems to the farmers follows HarvestPlus-Nigeria’s mandate to ensure that an additional 350,000 farming households receive the fortified cassava stems in 2014 from the 106,000 farming households who got them in 2013.
Wada pledged to make Koton Karfe a centre for the cultivation and distribution of vitamin A cassava in order to arrest the problem of malnutrition. He added that the state has perfected plans to become a model for staple crop processing in Nigeria by establishing model processing centres that will help create jobs for the youths.
He appreciated HarvestPlus for the provision and distribution of the fortified cassava stems, a measure he acknowledged will go a long way in confronting diseases such as blindness, stunting and anemia especially among children and pregnant women who are most vulnerable to the diseases.
Speaking further, the governor noted that it was his administration’s goal to make agriculture a noble profession in the state, hence his drive to ensure that the sector is driven by the private sector in order to position the state for the emergence of cassava as the top foreign exchange earner in the nation.
Speaking earlier, Koto sought the state government’s collaboration with HarvestPlus in the cultivation and distribution of other fortified staple crops such as zinc rice and Vitamin A maize and the provision of technical training in the production of these fortified crops.
In his welcome address, Country Manager of HarvestPlus–Nigeria, Dr. Paul Ilona, said the distribution of Vitamin A cassava stems was to secure the future of the Nigerian child.