Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN : Just add micro nutrients: Ultra Rice is a blend of rice flour, iron, zinc and folic acid Burundi is set to benefit from a rice fortification technology that will not only be the first in Africa but will also help check malnutrition in children through school-feeding programmes.
International organizations PATH and World Vision will introduce Ultra Rice, made from rice flour and enriched with micronutrients, including iron, zinc and folic acid, to about 15,000 children from April.
Marc Neilson, a public information officer for the World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN that "the purpose of the Ultra Rice project is to conduct a field trial to test the operational feasibility and biological impact of introducing fortified rice through a large food-aid programme".
Thomas Ruttoh, operations director for World Vision Burundi, said the project was "primarily about improving the nutritional quality of the food being taken by the children; anaemia is about 31 percent in Burundi".
The end result of the project, he said, would be to address malnutrition, which is considered "very high" in Burundi.
"Children can eat cassava, they can eat potatoes, but it is not the right food for a child because there is something missing," Rutto said, adding that the rice fortification was done mainly with iron as a micro-nutrient.
Data gathering
In October 2010, PATH received US$1 million from the US Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture for the project.
“With the USDA grant, PATH will bring the benefits of Ultra Rice to the African continent for the first time, and we are thrilled to do so in collaboration with World Vision," Dipika Matthias, director of PATH’s Ultra Rice Project, said in a statement. “Our pilot [project] will generate critical data and also serve as a model for improving the nutritional quality of rice-based food aid."
Matthias said the project would focus on generating both operational and biological impact data to demonstrate that PATH's Ultra Rice is an effective rice fortification method for food aid programmes.
World Vision Burundi will provide technical expertise and training as well as the warehouse facilities for the storage and distribution of fortified rice to about 15,000 children through a school-feeding programme supported by WFP.
The Burundi project will focus on the northeastern province of Muyinga, where WFP and the provincial education director have targeted 20 schools.
WFP's Neilson said Muyinga was chosen because it is among "the most food-insecure provinces and is characterized by low primary school enrolment rates.
"Muyinga shows, indeed, high malnutrition rates and vulnerability to natural disasters as well as a general lack of food security," Neilson said. "This is based on several joint vulnerability studies conducted with partners, including [the] government."
Ruttoh said a World Vision survey in the commune of Gashoho in Muyinga showed the rate of malnutrition was "very high. Results seem to be the same in other communes like Bugenyuzi in Karuzi province."
Taste test
Ruttoh said World Vision would conduct an acceptability test in April before beginning the rice distribution.
"The biological test has two components: is it tasty or not? You give a group a handful of rice; they close their eyes and are asked to tell if there is a difference. The second test is about the iron content in the blood before and after one year of use of fortified rice.
"In September, we will start again with some schools receiving plain and others fortified rice; the project will continue until September 2012," Ruttoh said. "In 2012, we will make an assessment to check if we have really contributed to reversing anaemia.
"It is anticipated that the lessons learnt from the project will inform partners of the need to improve the nutritional quality of food," Ruttoh said. "In future, the government, donors and the local community, especially entrepreneurs, may choose to adopt the practice of food fortification."
According to Neilson, the project will impact “on the attendance and retention of primary-school students. In addition, the students continue to receive nutrition education through the government health and education programmes."
Rice is not a staple food in Burundi, however.
A parent in the capital, Bujumbura, who declined to be named, said: "In our home villages, we eat rice only on special occasions, like Christmas or during other ceremonies. This will be interesting for children to get it at school on a daily basis; we hope its taste won’t be too different from the normal rice."
Athanase Ntiyanogeye, a university lecturer and nutritionist, said it would take time for the Ultra Rice “to make an impact because rice is still a luxury food and there is not enough rice production; it is not accessible to ordinary Burundians".
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91529
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