NAN-AE-43
Potato
Victor Adeoti
Osogbo, May 18, 2017 (NAN) The International Sweet Potato Centre (CIP), has urged the governments of West African countries to promote the cultivation and consumption of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) to fight Vitamin A deficiency in children.
Vivian Atakos, the CIP Regional Communication Specialist from Kenya, made this call during a visit to an OFSP farm in Osogbo on Thursday.
Atakos said that OFSP was rich in vitamin A, which could help to reduce its deficiency among vulnerable young children and lactating mothers in West Africa.
She, however, lauded the Osun Government for introducing OFSP in its school feeding programme, adding that the micro nutrient deficiency was a serious public health concern in Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.
Also speaking, a researcher from the National Root Crops Research Institute, Mr Akinpelu Oladipo, said if OFSP was consistently consumed, it would help to reduce the high prevalent of Vitamin A deficiency in the society.
Oladipo said that the institute was collaborating with CIP in promoting the cultivation of OFSP by farmers in the country and also to make the market readily available for it.
Mr Suleiman Adekanbi, a CIP Monitoring Officer, recalled that the OFSP project started in Nigeria in 2014.
Adekanbi said that OFSP was a natural root crop identified to combat Vitamin A deficiency, saying that CIP had trained farmers in the state on how to plant the root crop.
Mr Adepoju Ademola, whose OFSP farm was visited, called for government assistance in providing farm inputs for farmers.
According to Ademola, OFSP is richer in vitamin than the local sweet potato and more awareness is needed in order to educate the public on its health benefits.
The Osun Director of Elementary School Feeding Programme, Mrs Bunmi Ayoola, said the State Government was feeding more than 17,000 pupils with OFSP in 186 elementary public schools in the state.
Ayoola said that OFSP was introduced to the school feeding in 2015 because of its high Vitamin A nutrient.
She argued that since the introduction of OFSP to the school feeding programme, it had benefited the health of the pupils in the state public schools. (NAN)
VE/AOS/YEMI
Edited by Bayo Sekoni/Yemi Idris-Aduloju