Villagers Welcome Wolfgang, Thank HarvestPlus for Vitamin-A Initiative

The monarch of Okolo Village in Eruwa area of Oyo State, Nigeria, Pa David Olasunkanmi, and his subjects, recently hosted HarvestPlus’s Global Director, Product Development and Commercialization, Wolfgang Pfeiffer, the Nigerian team led by Country Manager, Paul Ilona, and Coordinator of Senator Adeyemo Women Empowerment Scheme (SAWEC), Mrs Bola Adeyemo, one of HarvestPlus’s partners, in his palace.

Pfeiffer, in Nigeria on a working visit, was in Eruwa to inspect ongoing activities of HarvestPlus and partners with regard to the delivery of vitamin A cassava using a model village concept, which links all the components of Vitamin A cassava value chain.

Pa Olasunkanmi, in a significant gesture to showcase the result of Vitamin A cassava stems HarvestPlus brought to the village a couple of years back through SAWEC, presented Vitamin A cassava tubers to Pfeiffer.

The monarch who spoke in Yoruba, translated by Mrs Adeyemo, thanked Pfeiffer and HarvestPlus team for making Okolo a point of reference in the delivery agenda of Vitamin A cassava in Nigeria.

He said the varieties did very well on their soil, as seen by the yields when harvested. “Our farmers now make money from their investments. “Women who sell yellow gari, yellow fufu and confections made from Vitamin A cassava make more money too, while there is great improvement in our health since we started consuming Vitamin A cassava products,” he added.

In his response, Pfeiffer thanked the villagers for their warm reception and promised that HarvestPlus will continue to work with partners to ensure that many more vulnerable people to hidden hunger are taken care of.

“Our work is to ensure that we develop crops that are healthier and more nutritious, which also address micronutrient deficiencies in meals, and deliver them to areas where they are mostly needed. The world will be a better place if we all eat more nutritious foods and are able to function to full capacity. In addition, we want farmers and investors linked to our program to make good profit from their investments. This explains why we go the extra mile to build market linkages to promote their businesses as a way of reaching more vulnerable targets in rural and urban settings,” he added.

Mrs Adeyemo explained to Pfeiffer the choice of Okolo as one of her model villages under HarvestPlus’s Vitamin A cassava delivery program, taking the team through the history of the market women who used to display their gari under a dangerous powerline.

She said her NGO stepped in to assist the rural women and their families by disseminating varieties of Vitamin A cassava stems to them, provided technical assistance to both household and commercial farmers during planting seasons and monitored their progress up unto the time of harvest when she returned to train them on how to add value to their harvested tubers and sell excess of their processed food products.

She acknowledged the role of HarvestPlus’s country office in equipping her with the necessary skills required to deliver on the organization’s goals and objectives.

“What you see in Okolo and our training/processing centre in Eruwa are products of the knowledge we gain from series of training and capacity-building programs organized by HarvestPlus Nigeria periodically,” she said.

In his statement, Paul Ilona, country manager, HarvestPlus Nigeria, said, “HarvestPlus Nigeria works closely with 20 partners in four target states of Oyo, Benue, Imo and Akwa-Ibom and 22 expansion states to address challenges along the Vitamin A cassava value chain.

The model village concept is one that links all operators of the value chain – from producers of Vitamin A cassava to processors, to bulking agents, to marketers and to the final consumer. Every component of the chain is very important.

That is why if there’s a disconnect at any point of the value chain, the entire program is likely to suffer.”

He further said that HarvestPlus is working towards a sustainable delivery program that will be driven by the private sector.

Small- and medium-scale enterprises are encouraged to invest in the value chain to ensure a wholesale coverage of the country and unhindered access to Vitamin A cassava products in the different regions of the country.

Highlights of Pfeiffer’s visit to Eruwa include a stop-over at SAWEC Farmers’ Training & Empowerment Centre, which currently has a Gari and Fufu Processing Unit, proposed staff office block and an AgroShop outlet, which will be linked to the online shop, for sales of Vitamin A cassava products and other farm inputs.

HarvestPlus leads a global effort to improve nutrition and public health by developing and deploying staple food crops that are rich in vitamins and minerals. We work with diverse partners in more than 40 countries.

HarvestPlus is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). CGIAR is a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.

Its science is carried out by its 15 research centers in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations.

The HarvestPlus program is coordinated by two of these centers, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).