Hunger in Nigeria is not only about empty plates. Millions of people eat enough to feel full yet still fall short of the vitamins and minerals their bodies need, a problem nutritionists call hidden hunger. A quiet, long-running effort to breed those nutrients back into everyday staples is trying to close that gap.
A Deficiency Behind Full Plates
The scale of the problem is stark. About one third of Nigerian children under five suffer from vitamin A deficiency, 68 per cent are anemic, a condition for which iron deficiency can be a contributing factor, and 20 per cent of all Nigerians are deficient in zinc, according to HarvestPlus. These deficiencies quietly undermine growth, immunity and learning, and they persist even where staple foods are widely available.
Nutrients Bred Into the Staple
The fix being scaled up is biofortification, the breeding of common crops to carry more micronutrients. So far Nigeria has released nine vitamin A biofortified varieties of cassava, eleven of vitamin A maize and three of vitamin A orange sweet potato, with iron-zinc sorghum and iron pearl millet in advanced development, according to HarvestPlus. The crops are developed through conventional breeding in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, the National Root Crops Research Institute at Umudike and the Institute of Agricultural Research at Zaria, and the newest vitamin A cassava varieties are at least six times more nutritious than common white cassava while also resisting pests and disease, according to HarvestPlus.
From Field to Plate
The evidence that it works is growing. A study found that Nigerian preschool children who ate vitamin A biofortified cassava significantly increased their vitamin A intake, and that eaten twice daily, yellow cassava can supply up to 100 per cent of daily vitamin A needs, according to HarvestPlus. Delivery has scaled through medium-scale seed multipliers, farmer-to-farmer sharing and consumer outreach such as the annual Nutritious Food Fair, with more than 1.7 million farming families growing vitamin A cassava and hundreds of thousands growing vitamin A maize, according to HarvestPlus, which works with over 50 public and private partners to multiply and deliver the varieties.
Better nutrition from ordinary, affordable staples eases pressure on families without adding to the food bill. FoodPrices Nigeria tracks verified retail prices across Lagos markets, and the spread of nutrient-rich staples is a reminder that the value of food is measured in nourishment as well as naira.
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