Bio-fortified maize introduced by FAO registered for the first time ever in the National Crop Variety Catalogue
The pro Vitamin A maize variety (PVA SYN 13) can now be mass produced and
distributed among farmers
17 January 2020, Banjul— FAO in The Gambia is proud to announce that one of the bio-fortified crops introduced under the National Resources Institute’s (NARI) coordination, Pro Vitamin A Maize (PVA SYN 13), has received its first ever seal of approval by the Gambian authorities to be registered in the National Variety Catalogue. Last year, after NARI performed various tests to determine seed increase and their adaptability, 33 Farmers and 11 community gardens received 952.5 Kg of this variety of maize across the country, and all indications point to results that exceed expectation. In fact, during a monitoring mission, NARI and FAO assessed that the farmers had produced about 18T of bio-fortified maize.
NARI submitted their results and the “passport data” [1] of the pro vitamin A Maize to the National Seed Secretariat, in the fall of 2019. After reviewing the passport data NARI provided for the variety from their on-station trials and on-farm activities, the committee accepted the variety for release on the 31 December 2019.
Looking forward, FAO and NARI will now strengthen their cooperation with the National Seed Secretariat (NSS) and the Department of Agriculture in order for them to intensify production of the new bio-fortified maize seeds through a selected group of seed growers that have been trained for the purpose. Furthermore the NSS will be responsible of inspecting the seed fields. NARI on the other hand will be in charge of the coordination and the technical backstopping. Furthermore, the Department of Agriculture will support the supervision in the field through the extension service.
About the Bio-Fortified crops
FAO GAMBIA, under the EU funded project “Improving food security and nutrition in the Gambia through food fortification”,[2] has introduced bio-fortified crops that have been proven to have nutrition impact if they are regularly consumed.
Three (3) bio-fortified crops varieties rich in Vitamin A namely Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP), Cassava, Maize and an Iron rich variety of cowpea (Leona) were brought in at National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) .They have been tested for climate adaptability and seed increase in three agricultural regions (NBR, CRR- North and CRR-South) of The Gambia .
[1] Passport data is a basic description of an accession. It contains of: accession name, genus name, country of origin, acquisition date, code of the institute where the accession is maintained, unique accession number.( source: https://dokumentacja.ihar.edu.pl/en/frequently-asked-questions/what-is-passport-data/)