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 ›

IP

Open source / open access

Problem

Limited Nutritional Value: Conventional cassava varieties provide limited vitamin A, reducing the nutritional value of cassava-based foods.
Vitamin A Deficiency: Low vitamin A intake among cassava-consuming populations creates a nutritional gap that conventional cassava varieties do not address.
Health Consequences of Vitamin A Deficiency: Vitamin A deficiency creates health risks among consumers, particularly nutritionally vulnerable groups.

Solution

Improved Nutritional Value: Vitamin A fortified cassava varieties increase the vitamin A value of cassava-based foods.
Increased Vitamin A Intake: Golden cassava provides a vitamin A-enriched staple that can help increase vitamin A intake among cassava-consuming populations.
Improved Nutritional Products: Vitamin A fortified cassava enables cassava-based foods to contribute more effectively to consumer nutrition.

Key points to design your business plan

For Seed Multipliers

Producing Golden Cassava provides enhanced nutrition, agronomic resilience, opportunities for women's empowerment, and support for Sustainable Development Goals, including food security, health, gender equality, and climate action.

To excel in this market, it's crucial to locate reliable seed sources in Nigeria, optimize transportation logistics, and assess storage options.

Effective seed multiplication requires stocking up on Foundation or Registered Seed, depending on your role in the seed development process. While open-pollinating varieties are free from royalties for multiplication and sales by farmers, they do necessitate certification in accordance with national seed system regulations.

Your potential customers are : wholesale distributors of seed to retailers, and to development projects, government agencies, and NGOs.

Building strong partnerships with wholesale distributor networks is key to the success of your business.

For Resellers

Selling Golden Cassava not only provides a valuable product but also fosters closer engagement with users while simultaneously enhancing health and wellbeing on a global scale.

To successfully navigate this market, you need to know where to source golden maize in bulk, identify efficient transportation methods, and explore suitable storage facilities

Your potential customer base is: small, local retailers, development projects, producers, and producer cooperatives or associations.

For Users

Using Golden Cassava offers a cost-effective, sustainable solution to combat vitamin A deficiency, ensures consistent nutrient supply, and empowers diverse farming communities for enhanced health and wellbeing

As key partners you need sellers of Golden Cassava.

You need to estimate the profit realized with the use of the the product.

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.

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.