Dr Linly Banda Ndebele
4 min read...
Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) remains a public health problem in Africa, where it affects over 30 million children under the age of 5 years, as well as pregnant and lactating women. Deficiency of vitamin A has serious implications which include; impaired vision, night blindness, weakened immune system and poor pregnancy outcomes, to name a few. The human body cannot make its own vitamin A. Preformed vitamin A sources include liver, fish, dairy products and eggs. Alternatively, and most commonly, consumption of foods containing pro-vitamin A carotenoids, such as fruits and vegetables that are orange, yellow and red in color (e.g., carrots), provides the daily requirements of this essential nutrient. All we have to do is eat, and our bodies will do the hard work of converting pro-vitamin A carotenoid compounds into the much-needed vitamin A.
“The over reliance on cereals (e.g., maize, wheat, sorghum) and starchy crops (e.g., cassava, sweetpotato) as staple foods contributes to the VAD problem in Africa. These crops naturally have very little to no pro-vitamin A carotenoids in them, said Dr Linly Banda.” Unfortunately, most low-income families cannot afford to supplement their diet with provitamin-A rich fruits and vegetables. Vitamin A supplementation programs available to children under the age of 5 years are a short-term measure, and do not reach the entire vulnerable population. “To address this problem, an innovative approach that increases pro-vitamin A content in staple crops, known as crop biofortification, is an ingenious tool required for making vitamin A available in the diet accessible to most low-income families.”
“Crop biofortification has been around for decades and great progress has been made in breeding maize and sweetpotato with enhanced pro-vitamin A content, resulting in orange maize and orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP). Eating just 125g of OFSP root provides the daily requirement of vitamin A for a 5-year-old. This means low-income settings in Sub-Saharan Africa can stop the problems emanating from VAD by adopting such crops. In addition, development of non-refrigerated, shelf-stable, value-added products will ensure that foods such as OFSP can be available all year round. This includes a diversity of products such as OFSP bread, cookies, and juice among other products. The same success can be achieved with staple crops, such as sorghum, which is the second most cultivated crop in Africa. It is widely consumed as a porridge, known as ‘sadza remapfunde’ in Zimbabwe, and as fermented alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Given its importance in diet, sorghum is a good target for biofortification.”
Thus, Dr Banda’s current work in the Rhodes Lab at Colorado State University, focuses on breeding sorghum for pro-vitamin A enrichment. To date, there is evidence that provitamin A content can potentially be increased by conventional breeding. However, Dr Banda’s work aims to go a step further in shortening the breeding cycle by studying the genetic composition of sorghum pertaining carotenoid synthesis, and developing markers that can assist in selecting varieties with high provitamin A content. “I am excited to see yellow sorghum becoming available for cultivation and consumption on the African continent, said Dr Banda.” Staple crops should not only provide energy but should be a great source of essential nutrients. After all nutritional quality is just as important as food quantity!
Biography: Linly Banda Ndebele is a lecturer in Biotechnology at the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe, and currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Nutritional Genomics at Colorado State University, Colorado, U.S.A. She is a recipient of the Pan African University PhD Scholarship, and an alumnus of the Third Generation Genomics and Bioinformatics for Agrobiosciences in Africa. Her current research focuses on developing molecular tools for breeding vitamin A biofortified sorghum. With prior experience of improving sweetpotato quality traits, Linly’s long-term goal is to develop improved crops that ensure a food and nutrition secure Africa.
Contact: linlybanda@gmail.com
Editor: Ben Chimukangara is a widely published medical research scientist, academic editor, peer reviewer and blogger. He is passionate about simplifying science communication for effective engagement with non-scientific communities.
