Golden cassava: Vitamin A fortified cassava varieties

Yellow-fleshed cassava rich in vitamin A

Yellow-fleshed cassava is a vitamin A-enriched variety. The variety is the result of the cross-breeding of natural lines containing high levels of provitamin A and hybrid lines with higher yield potential disease resistance and drought tolerance.

This technology is TAAT1 validated.

7•6

Scaling readiness: idea maturity 7/9; level of use 6/9

Project adoption4

Technology integrated in the EFPP, ENSURE, PADCV-PTA, and SAPZ-II projects.

See project details ›

Adults 18 and over: Positive high

Provides improved nutrition, helping to address vitamin A deficiencies. This strengthens the workforce, boosting productivity and overall well-being.

The poor: Positive high

Golden cassava offers affordable access to essential nutrients, reducing healthcare costs associated with malnutrition.

Under 18: Positive high

It helps combat malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency, which is especially crucial for children's growth, immune system development, and overall health

Women: Positive high

Women, particularly pregnant and nursing mothers, benefit from better nutrition, reducing risks to maternal and child health.

Climate adaptability: Highly adaptable

Golden cassava varieties are bred to be more resilient to various environmental conditions

Farmer climate change readiness: Significant improvement

These varieties help farmers adapt to climate change by providing a resilient, nutrient-enriched crop

Biodiversity: Positive impact on biodiversity

Breeding techniques ensure that native species are preserved, thus maintaining biodiversity

Soil quality: Does not affect soil health and fertility

Golden cassava cultivation could promote better land use management when coupled with sustainable farming practices.

Water use: Same amount of water used

These varieties are expected to have similar water requirements as conventional cassava.

Problem

Malnutrition and Hidden Hunger: Low micronutrient intake contributes to hidden hunger among populations that depend heavily on cassava as a staple food.
Vitamin A Deficiency: Insufficient dietary vitamin A remains a nutrition challenge, particularly among nutritionally vulnerable populations.
Vitamin A Deficiency-Related Health Issues: Vitamin A deficiency contributes to health problems and increases the public health burden associated with micronutrient deficiencies.

Solution

Improved Micronutrient Nutrition: Vitamin A fortified cassava increases the nutritional value of a widely consumed staple, helping address hidden hunger.
Increased Dietary Vitamin A: Golden cassava provides vitamin A through cassava-based diets, supporting efforts to reduce inadequate vitamin A intake.
Food-Based Nutrition Improvement: Integrating vitamin A fortified cassava into food systems provides a food-based approach to addressing vitamin A-related nutrition challenges.

Key points to design your project

Golden cassava technology is a solution for malnutrition and hunger by biofortifying with provitamin A and enhancing agronomic traits, thereby empowering women and promoting climate resilience. Its impact extends to Sustainable Development Goals, supporting food security, health, gender equality, climate action, and land conservation.

To integrate this technology into your project, and create a list of project activities and plan these activities:

Collaborate with all stakeholders in the cassava value chain to establish quality parameters, norms, and screening methods for golden cassava varieties.
Engage multipliers and seed companies to produce and market high-quality seeds capable of yielding equal or greater root yields than non-biofortified varieties.
Establish linkages between seed suppliers, cassava growers, food processors, and consumer groups to stimulate demand for nutritional food produced from golden cassava.
Offer financial assistance to local suppliers and smallholder farmers to facilitate investments in and purchases of planting material for golden cassava.

Considering the technology cost and a requirement per ha, estimate the quantity of seeds needed for your project.

As the technology is available from Nigeria, include the delivery cost to the project site and account for import clearance and duties if relevant.

A team of trainers could provide training and support during project installation. Include the cost for training and post-training support for using the technology.

Communication support for the technology should be developed (flyers, videos, radio broadcasts, etc.)

For better optimization of the improved maize variety, it is recommended to associate this technology with Integrated weed, pest and soil management system (GAP), Seed bulking for cassava multiplication.

To implement the technology in your country, you could collaborate with agricultural development institutes and seed multiplication companies.

IP

Open source / open access

Scaling Readiness describes how complete a technology's development is and its ability to be scaled. It produces a score that measures a technology's readiness along two axes: the level of maturity of the idea itself, and the level to which the technology has been used so far.

Each axis goes from 0 to 9 where 9 is the “ready-to-scale” status. For each technology profile in the e-catalogs we have documented the scaling readiness status from evidence given by the technology providers. The e-catalogs only showcase technologies for which the scaling readiness score is at least 8 for maturity of the idea and 7 for the level of use.

The graph below represents visually the scaling readiness status for this technology, you can see the label of each level by hovering your mouse cursor on the number.

Scaling readiness score of this technology

Maturity of the idea 7 out of 9

Semi-controlled environment: prototype

Level of use 6 out of 9

Used by some projects NOT connected to technology provider

Maturity of the idea										Level of use
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Project	Countries	Beneficiaries	Budget (USD) & duration	Key figures
EFPP Guinea Emergency Food Production Programme	Guinea	Direct: 35,750 Indirect: 73,800	25.23 million 2022–2024	2,000 tons of rice seeds distributed 750 tons of maize seeds distributed 4,845 tons NPK provide 3,185 tons urea provide
ENSURE Enabling Environments for Sustainable Regional Agriculture Extension	Kenya Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo South Sudan Uganda Tanzania	Direct: 3,000,000	13.14 million 2024–2027	149,940 farmers trained 9,996 Training 2→3.5 tons/ha cereals production expected 350 agent trained
PADCV-PTA Projet d’Appui au Developpement des Chaines de Valeurs en soutien au Programme de Transformation de l’Agriculture	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Direct: 900,000 Indirect: 2,000,000	321 million 2024–2029	62,000 tons certified seeds produced 5,200 ha rice fields developed 600 km resilient roads rehabilitated 30,000 people trained
SAPZ-II Multinational- Promotion of Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains in Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones	Nigeria	Direct: 1,100,000 Indirect: 900,000	625,00 million 2025–2030	1,000,000 jobs created 2 billion USD private investments mobilized 2,000,000 farmers trained 6,000 ha developed for Agro-Industrial Hubs

Figures in italic are from project plans and may change during implementation.

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested
Countries with a blue colour: Testing ongoing

Countries where the technology is being tested or has been tested and adopted
Country	Testing ongoing	Tested	Adopted
Nigeria	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.

Agro-ecological zones where this technology can be used
AEZ	Subtropic - warm	Subtropic - cool	Tropic - warm	Tropic - cool
Arid
Semiarid
Subhumid
Humid

Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.

Goal 2: zero hunger

It addresses malnutrition and hidden hunger by increasing provitamin A content in cassava.

Goal 3: good health and well-being

It Helps reduce vitamin A deficiency, which can lead to severe health issues such as blindness and immune system problems.

Goal 5: gender equality

Women involved in cassava cultivation and consumption benefit from increased income and good health.

Select healthy cuttings from yellow-fleshed cassava varieties, and Ensure that the cuttings are free from disease symptoms.
Choose the appropriate planting technique based on local rainfall conditions. In dry climates, plant cassava cuttings horizontally and cover them entirely with soil. In humid areas with high precipitation, plant cuttings vertically or angularly.
Follow recommended soil and fertilizer management practices tailored to your specific growing area and conditions, essential for achieving high root yields.
Tackle limitations in nutrient availability and water supply. Prevent soil compaction and weed encroachment
Utilize disease-resistant cassava varieties to enhance production levels.
Harvest the mature cassava roots when they are ready for use.
Due to their high nutritional value, the roots from golden cassava varieties are ideal for processing into various products. Manufacture products like flour, bread, garri, or crisps from the cassava roots. These processed goods can be sold in both local and international markets.