By HELEN ZULU –
HARVESTPLUS has provided orange maize to 100,000 farmers in the country as of December last year.
HarvestPlus country manager for Zambia Eliab Simpungwe said orange maize was high in Vitamin A content and the company was geared to expand the distribution this year.
Mr Simpungwe said in Lusaka yesterday that Zambia was the first country to release orange maize varieties in Africa.
He said the Government had supported HarvestPlus in its efforts to provide orange maize to the farming households.
“Our goal is now to exceed the 100,000 famers by next month. By October last year, we had provided the orange maize to 10, 000 households and by December we reached 100,000.
The orange maize has been bred specifically for human consumption. It is not the same as yellow maize which is popularly used for animal feed.  When consumers have had a chance to taste orange nshima, they would prefer it than the white nshima,” he said.
He said when people also understand the benefits of vitamin A in their diets they would be all the more enthusiastic about orange maize.
The Government officially recognised bio-fortification, which was included in the National Food and Nutrition Strategic Plan for Zambia 2011-2015.
HarvestPlus is funded by donors that include the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Irish Aid, and the Department for International Development (DFID), the Gates Foundation among international institutions.
Mr Simpungwe said since the commencement of the project in 2010, donor funds for Zambia could be estimated in the excess of US$5 million.
The success of the maize project could be credited to several partners that included the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute, the Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, National Food and Nutrition Commission.
Others were the Civil Society Organization on Scaling Up Nutrition, Programme Against Malnutrition, World Vision and Development Aid from People to People.