MALNUTRITION: EGYPT: Fears of rising malnutrition amid increasing poverty

CAIRO, 9 March 2012 (IRIN)

 Photo: Martina Fuchs/IRIN
Experts say malnutrition in Egypt is not related to a shortage of food, but rather to a lack of access to proper foods, leading to a deficiency in essential micronutrients

Nasser Ali Hossan Morsy, who worked as a porter in central-northern Egypt, knew he needed another source of income when he suffered lower back problems last year so he decided to take a loan and buy a motorcycle.
The motorcycle, he reasoned, would help him provide for his wife and five children. Once operational, it could also help him pay back the 3,500 Egyptian pound loan (US$580). But things took a turn for the worse when the motorcycle was stolen, and shortly after, major protests erupted throughout Egypt in February 2010, leading to the ousting of then President Hosni Mubarak.
Since then Morsy has been scrambling to make ends meet in his home town of Maghagha, some 175km south of Cairo. Between his debt and back problems, earning enough to feed his wife and children, aged two months to 16 years, has been a real challenge. “I don’t find enough food because there’s no more work,” he said.
He is not alone. “Poverty is a common result of the 25 January revolution,” said Nabil Gamil Mohamed, professor of paediatrics at Minya University and regional head of political party the Muslim Brotherhood. Increasing poverty, he added, has had two effects: new cases of malnutrition have emerged, and families already dealing with malnutrition are facing more pressure to feed properly.
In Maghagha’s Qulyan neighbourhood, where Morsy lives, many people now feed only on `ful’ (cooked and mashed fava beans) and sesame-sprinkled ta’meyya (deep-fried fava bean patty) sandwiches. Their daily diet does not include fruit, vegetables or dairy products, and last time most had meat was last November, during Eid al-Adha, he said. It had been donated by the local al-Gama’ayat al-Shara’aya, the social arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to Awad Abdul Hafiz, head of the charity al-Gama’ayat al-Shara’aya responsible for Qulyan, about 30 new needy families registered with his organization last year. It is a small number, mainly because Maghagha did not witness the same level of violence that rocked the Egyptian capital and the Nile delta.
Currently, his organization provides about 650 Maghagha families with a meal every two weeks, and a minimum monthly food allowance of 20 Egyptian pounds ($3) per child. This supplements an average monthly family income of 200-300 Egyptian pounds ($33-50).
Al-Gama’ayat al-Shara’aya’s money comes from roughly 1,000 donors, but the economic turmoil in which Egypt finds itself has had an impact on this as well. “There’s been a slight decrease in donations since the revolution,” says Abdul Hafiz.

Low incomes
According to figures released by the World Food Programme (WFP) in November, the monthly income of about 77 percent of vulnerable households in Egypt did not cover their monthly needs.
Another WFP report released in December but based on 2009 government data showed that governorates in Upper Egypt were already at great risk from food insecurity, which was linked to their precarious economic situation.
According to Alia Hafiz, a nutrition programme officer at WFP’s office in Cairo, an assessment is currently under way to examine the consequences of last year’s events on food security and vulnerability. However, she added, anecdotal evidence suggests that poverty is on the rise in Upper Egypt, and that malnutrition is following an upward trend in the region.
“Malnutrition is an issue that is not improving, and it is not stable. It may be on the rise because of the unstable situation,” she said.
Experts say malnutrition in Egypt is not related to a shortage of food, but rather to a lack of access to proper foods, leading to a deficiency in essential micronutrients. Indicators from the 2009 data showed that 30 percent of Upper Egyptians suffered from caloric deprivation, and 49 percent had poor dietary diversity.
Almost a third of Upper Egyptians suffer from iron, zinc, or vitamin A deficiency. Iron deficiency leads to loss of attention and low productivity, which impinges on education and work. “Anaemia mainly affects children, because their bodies have higher demands,” said Hafiz.
A lack of vitamin A may lead to night blindness, also known as nyctalopia, while zinc deficiency may cause severe diarrhoea and pneumonia. These two health problems are common among children in the governorate of Minya, according to Mohamed of Minya University.
“This is a vicious circle, because diarrhoea and pneumonia weaken the immune system, and a weak immune system leads to more diarrhoea and pneumonia,” he added.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95040/EGYPT-Fears-of-rising-malnutrition-amid-increasing-poverty

MALNUTRITION: Indioa: Bid to check malnutrition through fortified flour

22 November 2011
The Madhya Pradesh Government is all set to distribute fortified flour from November 22 in a bid to counter malnutrition. There has been a lot of controversy regarding the benefits of enriched flour in relation to those of whole wheat flour. Although enriched flour does contain the similar amounts of vitamins as the unrefined flour products, it does not have the same nutritional benefits of whole wheat flour.

To counter the widespread malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh, the State Government is all set to distribute fortified flour in Madhya Pradesh from November 22. The similar project launched in Rajasthan last year was strongly opposed by the local people stating that despite being nutrients in the flour, the quality is poor.
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), which had advocated the campaign in this regard in Rajasthan and Gujarat, would launch a similar drive in Madhya Pradesh too.
The massive food fortification drive claims to bring down high levels of anaemia and Vitamin A deficiency that has been hampering the State's progress and economic growth for several years.
The World Food Programme (WFP) had earlier conducted a similar project on empirical basis in three districts of Madhya Pradesh- Shivpuri, Guna and Sheopur. For the purpose, the WFP is funding local voluntary organisations for fortification of flour and distributing it among the villagers.
Later, the project was withdrawn because the programme could not fulfill the objectives of collecting evidences and data.
However, it has been a debatable issue whether a written consent should be needed from consumers, who are consuming it.
If one goes by the latest human development report of Madhya Pradesh, the state of health in Madhya Pradesh is far from satisfactory. This is reflected from the latest estimate for longevity, measured as life expectancy at birth, which was 59 years for males and 58 years for females.
As per the latest estimate on longevity as quoted in the Human Development Report 2007, the life expectancy for males and females in Madhya Pradesh was the lowest among all the major States in India and a good four to eight years lower than the national average.
State Advisor to Supreme Court Commissioner in Right to Food case Sachin Jain said significantly, there is not a clear situation regarding fortification of flour with iron and folic acid. As per rules, the quantity of iron should be monitored, but it is not being monitored properly at several places and thus negative effects have been witnessed at several places.
In malaria-prone areas, iron fortification needs to be monitored properly because the patients may face problems with the iron fortified flour consumption, he added.
Jain informed that the concept of fortification has been a success only in the States where there is strong network of primary health centres, but in Madhya Pradesh this network is quite poor. "If anybody faces health disorders, he needs to immediately approach primary health centres, thus in the areas where PHCs are available, this has been a success," he informed. The flour fortification project that was launched in Gujarat has been challenged in Supreme Court, he said.
He further said that after fortification, the flour has medicinal components, but globally, natural food is considered as the best food. Thus, the Government should make efforts in making available natural foods to the people, he advised. Jain stated that the interests of MNCs are involved in the project, which need to be checked and the whole process should be in public interest.
General secretary of the Roller Flour Mills Federation of India (RMFI) Veena Sharma told that there has been no incident of ill effects of the fortified flour. She informed that it requires at least four to five months for positive results of the fortification, thus similar time would be required for the ill effects. Thus, the misconceptions if any are plainly on here say, she claimed. Regarding case pending in the Supreme Court against Gujarat Government, Sharma stated that it was regarding no reducing the quantity of grain provided through the PDS in Gujarat.

Difference in amount of fibre
One of the most significant differences is the amount of fibre. During the production of white enriched flour, a lot of the fibre-containing components (the bran and germ) are reduced or removed. Thus, products made from this type of flour contain smaller amounts of fibre than those made with whole wheat flour.
Another concern is the effect on blood sugar levels. Enriched flour products tend to be higher on the Glycemic Index, quickly raising blood sugar levels. In contrast, foods made from whole grains tend to be lower on the Glycemic Index. Because they contain higher amounts of fibre and other complex carbohydrates, they take longer to digest; therefore, sugars enter the bloodstream in a slow and more controlled manner.
However, experts feel that there are more benefits with the fortification of the flour and thus there is no worry to use it.

Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies
Milk, milk products, fruits, vegetables, egg, fish, and meat are the best sources of micronutrients, ie vitamins and minerals. But in Madhya Pradesh, per-capita consumption of these micronutrient-rich foods across all socio-economic and demographic groups is very low. Hence MP has high levels of micronutrient malnutrition; especially anemia and vitamin A deficiency. According to theNFHS-3, prevalence of anemia is very high amongst all population and socio-economic groups. In MP, 74 per cent of children 6-59 months, 58 per cent women and 25 per cent men are anaemic. Anaemia and vitamin A deficiency are major contributors to the low-vitality and mortality, especially of women and of children under five.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhopal/22268-bid-to-check-malnutrition-through-fortified-flour.html

MALNUTRITION: Nigeria: Saving a child could be down to a couple of nutrients

Anna Angbazo : July 10, 2011



Poor diets retard children’s growth and their development, including their cognitive development. Photo: REUTERS

Although the federal government has expressed its commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goals, especially as relates to health, some experts say investment in quick gains projects such as improved nutrition would be cheap but eventually productive for the nation.
In 2000, for instance, the World Health Organisation (WHO) ranked Nigeria’s health system 187th out of its 191 member states, particularly due to problems such as hunger and malnutrition, which have become increasingly severe over the years.
Jane Miller, the country representative of UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), explains the rationale behind Nigeria’s poor ranking rather succinctly.
“Malnutrition, malaria and communicable diseases such as measles, diarrhoea and pneumonia significantly contribute to maternal and child mortality and morbidity,” Miller says, adding that “one million Nigerian children under the age of five die each year.”
Malnutrition has been a serious concern to the WHO, which insists that it is by far the major factor behind child mortality, with underweight births and inter-uterine growth restrictions causing 2.2 million child deaths every year.
The global health agency says mothers’ neglect of infants’ breast-feeding also causes about 1.4 million deaths, while describing malnutrition as the most serious single threat to public health across the world.
Linus Awute, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, concedes that Nigeria is one of the countries that are mostly affected by deaths of children under the age of five years due to factors such as malnutrition.
He stresses that over two-thirds of malnutrition-related deaths of children usually occur within the first year of their existence, adding that the children’s undernourishment is associated with inappropriate feeding practices.
“Appropriate feeding of infants and young children remains a key factor in promoting health and child survival. However, many mothers have yet to imbibe the required child-feeding attitudes and practices, in spite of many public sensitisation campaigns,” he says.
Going from the general to the specifics, the WHO says malnutrition is also responsible for about 14 percent of infants born with low birth weights in Nigeria and more than 75 percent of children, under the age of five, who are anaemic.
Mr Awute, on his part, stresses that babies who undergo exclusive breast-feeding do well in their first six months of life, adding, however, that such babies subsequently need adequate and appropriate complementary feeding for them not to become malnourished.
He also said malnutrition usually crops up because of deficiencies of macro- and micro-nutrients in the babies’ food, adding that these deficiencies induce ”protein-energy malnutrition, iron-deficiency anaemia, iodine-deficiency disorders and Vitamin A-deficiency.”
Lawan Tahir, a paediatrician, also called on new parents to ensure that infants are given healthy, balanced diets after stopping their breast-feeding.
“To reduce child mortality, mothers should feed their children with balanced diets after they have been weaned,” he says.

Killer of young ones
Mr Tahir, a senior registrar at the National Hospital, Abuja, who said two out of every three child deaths are related to malnutrition, adding that a malnourished child is prone to numerous diseases because of the child’s poor immune system which cannot resist infections.
After breast-feeding, the next thing most mothers do is introducing the babies to cereals, as the infants feed on mainly carbohydrate diets.
“Nevertheless, what the child needs at that point is actually not carbohydrates alone but proteins, fats and oils, as well as micro-nutrients to enable him or her to have a balanced nutrition,” he said. “Unfortunately, most children are not given well-balanced diets, probably due to their parents’ poverty or ignorance.”
Mr Tahir adds that poor diets retard children’s growth and their development, including their cognitive development. The paediatrician explains that malnutrition is a health condition which signifies poor nutrition, as well as an imbalance between the intake of nutrients and what the body actually requires.
Experts say rising cases of malnutrition in Nigeria can be attributed to the lack of food security in the country, poor feeding habits, waning exclusive breast-feeding of newborn babies and poor quality complementary feeding of infants after the age of six months.
Another paediatrician, Azeez Ibrahim says micro-nutrients deficiency is a direct cause of child mortality.
“Micro-nutrients such as iron, iodine, and Vitamin A are necessary for the healthy development of children, while their absence in diets can cause serious disorders,” he said He, however, said malnutrition is not a health problem of children alone, adding that “many adolescents are also having malnutrition problems and these affect their learning processes and productivity.”
Mr Ibrahim, nonetheless, insists that some cases of malnutrition in adolescents are due to increased intake of carbonated drinks (soft drinks), as such drinks only provide “empty calories” that are insufficient to meet the body’s requirements for proper growth.
“Malnutrition in a female adolescent is worse because as the young ladies prepare for marriage, they need a balanced diet for them to attain their potential as women,” he says.

All together on safety
As part of efforts to foster improved nutrition in Nigeria, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is working with the federal government via the National Fortification Alliance (NFA). The NFA comprises government regulatory agencies such as National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).
Hauwa Keri, NAFDAC’s director of Establishment Inspection, says the aim of the government policy on fortified foods is to get more nutritious staple foods like wheat and maize flour, vegetable oil and sugar into the markets and homes of vulnerable families whose diets lack the essential micro-nutrients.
“The goal of the effort, which began in March 2007, is to change the lives of the citizens by giving them a chance to eat more balanced diets every day,” she says.
Ms Keri stresses that the Federal Government has been leading a national campaign to add essential micro-nutrients to food products such as wheat and maize flour, refined sugar and vegetable oils since 2002.
Besides, Ms Keri said, a pilot programme is underway to fortify table salt with iron so as to provide the needed micronutrients for the people, adding that table salt is already being fortified with iodine.
“The project is at a pilot stage in three zones and it aims at ascertaining whether fortifying salt with iodine and iron will be acceptable,” she says. “It is also at a research and study stage; the outcome of the investigations will determine whether to adopt the iron fortification scheme or not.”
Larry Umunah, the country representative of GAIN, says Nigeria has been identified as one of the countries that are determined to tackle the menace of malnutrition frontally.
He, however, stresses the need to ensure that mothers and children have proper nutrients so as to curb the rising menace of maternal and child mortality in the country.
Umunah said if Nigeria is able to effectively tackle the issue of malnutrition among mothers and children, the country will definitely be in a better position to achieve the health targets of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“Ensuring that mothers and children have proper nutrients is of paramount importance. If Nigerian mothers and children are able to have improved nutrients, the country will move toward achieving the MDGs,” he said.
Dr Orhii, the director general of NAFDAC, however, stresses the need for regulatory agencies to enforce the full compliance of food industries with the extant regulation regarding the fortification of their products.
Mr Orhii bemoans the inability of the vast majority of the rural people to have access to fortified foods, adding that the prevalence of ”hidden hunger” among the rural populace has been a source of public health concern.
The NAFDAC director says that fortified foods contain all the essential vitamins that prevent diseases, adding that lack of iodine in salt, for instance, can make a child dull.
“Iodine deficiency can also interfere with the reproductive system of girls in future,” he said. “We insist on the fortification of foods with essential vitamins to prevent diseases which usually affect vulnerable groups like pregnant women and children below the age of five.”
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5728780-146/saving_a_child_could_be_down.csp

MALNUTRITION: Viet Nam: How to ensure micronutrients for children

02/06/2011

(VOV) - The Ministry of Health has chosen June 1-2 as annual Micronutrition Day to deal with health problems related to vitamin A and iodine deficiency and anaemia in mothers and children.

Vietnam aims to reduce malnutrition rates among underweight children to 10 percent by 2015 and the number of malnourished children (height for age) to 20-30 percent.

A Radio Voice of Vietnam (VOV) reporter interviewed Trinh Quan Huan, Deputy Minister of Health on the issue.

Reporter: Could you please tell us about the current micro-nutrition situation in Vietnam?
Mr Huan: Micronutrition plays an important role in ensuring human health and growth.
Micronutrient deficiency has become rather popular due to limited economic status and food rations.
The high rate of nutritional anaemia, especially in pregnant women (30 percent) can cause maternal deaths and adversely affect the development of foetus.
Vitamin A deficiency in children is very prevalent in remote and mountainous areas.
10 percent of the total children in the country suffer from vitamin A deficiency while there are inadequate supplies of iodine in some disadvantaged areas.

Reporter: What measures has the Ministry of Health taken to improve the micronutrition situation in Vietnam?
Mr Huan: The Ministry of Health plans to improve the micronutrition situation in the country with a main focus on pregnant women and children.
Many practical measures to ensure sufficient supplies of vitamin A and iodine for the community have helped reduce mortality rates in pregnant women and children and improve child physical and metal strength.
Pregnant women are provided with iron and multi micronutrient pills during their pregnancy, and children are periodically taken high doses of Vitamin A or lumbricide.

Reporter: What is your assessment of child malnutrition in Vietnam?
Mr Huan: There have been significant achievements in preventing child malnutrition over the past ten years with malnutrition rates among underweight children drastically dropping from 36.7 percent in 1999 to 18.9 percent in 2009, and to 17.5 percent for the time being (two years earlier than the set target).
However, the number of malnourished children (height for age) remains high, accounting for 31.9 percent of children under five and the similar situation exists in all parts of the country.
Malnutrition (weight-for-height) closely related to mortality and incidence rates requires careful attention and care from families and society.
Chronic malnutrition often results in long-term physical consequences for children, causing other problems such as obesity, diabetes, and other infectious diseases later in life.

Reporter: What should the Ministry of Health do to reduce the number of malnourished children?
Mr Huan: Priority will be given to reducing child malnutrition rates in the 2011-2020 nutrition plan by sufficiently providing pregnant women with micronutrients or iron pills during their pregnancy and children with nutritional care and lumbricide as well as promoting community-based communications in remote and mountainous areas.
The Ministry of Health has set a target of reducing malnutrition rates among underweight children to 10 percent by 2015 and to 8 percent by 2020 and the number of malnourished children (height for age) to 20-30 percent.

Reporter: Thank you very much.

http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/How-to-ensure-micronutrients-for-children/20116/127144.vov

MALNUTRITION: Vietnam: Ensuring micronutrients for mothers and babies

(VOV) May 28 2011 
Vietnam aims to reduce under-weight and malnutrition in children to below 10 percent, and stunted growth in children to less than 23 percent by 2015, announced Deputy Minister of Health Trinh Quan Huan.
The Ministry of Health held a ceremony in Hanoi on May 28 to launch the 2011 Micronutrient Day hoping to raise public awareness of essential nutrition and promote food hygiene and safety as well as Vitamin A and iron supplements for mothers and children.
The programme will be held nationwide on June 1-2 with a series of practical activities, including providing free Vitamin A supplements for children, education on micronutrients and consulting on food processing methods for pregnant women and babies.



Vietnam is facing malnutrition and a deficiency of micronutrients among children under five. The malnutrition rate for children under five is still high, at 17.5 percent, and more than 30 percent of them suffer from low weight and stunted growth.
In recent years, Vietnam has won praise from many international orgnisations because of the positive results of its malnutrition prevention programme.

http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Ensuring-micronutrients-for-mothers-and-babies/20115/127011.vov

MALNUTRITION: Kenya: food insecurity and malnutrition

GILBERT arap BOR: May 22 2011


One of the paradoxes of food security is that an obese person also can be malnourished.
We often associate food insecurity with a lack of calories. This is its classic and most obvious form. In extreme cases, a lack of calories can mean severe hunger or even starvation.
Yet sometimes people get plenty of calories but not enough nutrients. This is a less obvious form of food insecurity.
Some call it “hidden hunger” and it poses incredible challenges. Malnutrition stunts growth, hurts cognitive development in children, and darkens futures. Fortunately, technological advances in agriculture provide a solution.
The fundamental challenge of malnutrition is that people do not always want to buy and eat the food that is best for them.
Their first and last impulse is to want food that is cheap, tasty, and easily available. Nutrition has little or nothing to do with the choices people make when they shop.
This is especially true in developing countries, where money and access to food are limited. Here in Kenya, I see the problem of malnutrition regularly.
Fruit should be a part of everyone’s diet. But people skip it all the time, especially when it is out of season and perceived as being expensive.
The problem is most severe in urban slums and many rural districts of the country, such as Samburu and Turkana, and the North Eastern districts.
Around the world, malnutrition may affect as many as two billion people. It has almost certainly grown worse because of the global spike in food prices.
The Economist recently described the bad diet of the poor as “one of the world’s neglected scourges.” Everybody needs a wide variety of vitamins and minerals, but several types are commonly in short supply.
Iron is necessary for a functional immune system, but more than half the women in India and 40 per cent of those in Indonesia do not consume enough of the mineral.

Zinc contributes to the proper functioning of the brain and an estimated 400,000 people die each year because they do not take in the minimal amount required.
Vitamin A helps the body to protect its organs, but half-a-million children go blind each year because they lack this simple ingredient in their diets.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 43 million children under the age of five are at constant risk. The world must grow more food simply to feed itself. It also must grow better food so that people can thrive.
Farmers in Kenya and Uganda have responded by raising orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, whose rich nutrients rapidly improve the health of women and children.
Farmers would like to have access to the best technologies to fight malnutrition. Widespread approval of golden rice, a biotech crop, would combat vitamin A deficiencies.
So would the advent of biofortified cassava, turning a staple food crop for 250 million sub-Saharan Africans into an arsenal of carotenoids that boost vitamin A intake.
If researchers can find a way to change the colour of vitamin A-enriched maize from yellow to white, farmers would find a strong market for it.
Professors at Iowa State University recently used biotechnology to increase the protein content of soybeans. These are the sort of advances we hope can be achieved in Kenya.

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/We+all+need+to+play+our+role+in+fight+against+food+insecurity/-/440808/1167422/-/3it47h/-/

MALNUTRITION: Bangladesh: Bio-fortification: Way to fight malnutrition

Md Julfikar Islam
Renu Begum, an 18-year-old village girl gave birth to a dead child last month. At the eleventh hour of her delivery she was taken to the Thana Health Complex. Though she came out alive, the doctors could not save her child. When asked, the doctors blamed lack of zinc and calcium in the mother's body for the cause of the stillbirth. Renu's case is one of many.
According to preliminary studies by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh ICDDR-B, seven out of 10 women in Bangladesh do not get enough zinc in their diets.
Shortage of zinc is a significant public health nutrition problem for children under five in the country that leads to a "pervasively high prevalence of stunting [low height-to-age ratio]," said Tahmeed Ahmed, the head of nutrition department and senior scientist at ICDDR-B.
At this juncture, I am so euphoric to learn that the researchers of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) is going to introduce a type of high-zinc content rice very soon that can reduce the deficiencies of zinc in human body. The process they followed to innovate this type of rice is called bio-fortification.
Bio-fortification is a method of breeding crops to increase their nutritional value. It differs from ordinary fortification, because it focuses on making plant food more nutritious as the plants grow, rather than having nutrients added to the food when it is being processed. This is an improvement on ordinary fortification when it comes to providing nutrients for the rural poor, who rarely have access to commercially fortified food stuff.
The researchers of BRRI used the selective breeding method. They tested seeds selected from hundreds of thousands of rice strains chosen for their naturally high zinc content. Then they used cross-breeding between the zinc-rich rice and widely grown rice varieties to see what takes root in Bangladesh's soil and climate.
Not only rice the other food grains like potato, sweet potato, maze and wheat also can be fortified with these micronutrients. Now it is our turn to think about this technology and implement it seriously.
Why actually this bio-fortification method is chosen to introduce zinc-rich rice? In this method the nutrients become an inseparable part of the grain. As the poor people cannot afford to eat animal products, which are naturally rich in zinc and eat only one or two varieties of food most of the time they lack proper amount of zinc.
Moreover, according to local NGO, Bangladesh Rice Foundation, more rice is consumed per person in Bangladesh than in any other country where it is considered a staple food. But the existing types of rice do not have the amount of zinc people require.
It is also important to justify the commercial viability of this zinc-rich rice. If you cannot make any product commercially profitable, the product will be out of the market within a very short time. The target market of this type of rice is rural children, women and men suffering from malnutrition. The people living in the slum areas can be the target market of this product. By enriching the quality it can also be reached to the middle-class people of the cities.
Though preliminary research and development cost can raise the price of the seed of the rice, but widespread cultivation of the rice can help reduce the price. If the market price of this seed is higher than the existing hybrid seed, farmers will be discouraged to procure it. So, here government can extend a helping hand by subsidising this special seed until the seed producers can reach a position to offer a competitive price.
Moreover, it is very important to create awareness among the risk-averse farmers about the rice that it will not need any extra effort to produce this type of rice. If the production, pricing and overall marketing of the rice is successful only then we can hope to make it sustainable and minimise the health hazards for the lack of zinc and other micronutrients.
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=137151&date=2011-05-28

MALNUTRITION: Haiti: Heinz nurtures vitamin-deficient Haitian young

Jill King Greenwood : May 19, 2011

When women in Haiti stop nursing their babies, it doesn't take long for malnutrition to set in.
Breast-feeding typically ceases when infants are 6 months old and they are transitioned to a diet high in corn, rice and wheat grains. The children don't get enough iron, zinc and other nutrients and can become malnourished quickly and susceptible to illness and disease, Ian Rawson, managing director of Hopital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti, said on Wednesday.
Rawson -- a Pittsburgh native in the United States to deliver the commencement address on Friday at Goucher College in Baltimore -- is working to change that with a team of researchers at H.J. Heinz Co. Heinz has developed a nutritional supplement called NurtureMate, which it will begin distributing in the poverty-stricken nation this summer.
"With the malnutrition comes the cholera, and the tuberculosis, inhibited growth and cognitive development and so many other things," said Rawson, who has worked since 2009 at the hospital founded by the Mellon family 55 years ago. "They are struggling, and we are so excited about the opportunity to help them and lift them out of that."
The NurtureMate, a sachet similar in size to a sugar packet, is sprinkled on top of food, Rawson said. It is odorless and colorless.
Sixty packets cost just $1.50 to manufacture, said Tammy Aupperle, director of the H.J. Heinz Company Foundation. The first distribution will reach 14,000 children, she said, and the effort aims to target children ages 6 months to 2 years.
"This is such a critical stage in a child's life, and their mental and physical development and growth are critical in that time period," Aupperle said.
The Heinz Micronutrient Fund was started in 2007, and the supplements have been distributed in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and other developing countries, Aupperle said.
Heinz and Dr. Stanley Zlotkin, of Toronto, developed the supplement, which can be customized to meet the needs of different cultures in different countries, Aupperle said. Children in Mongolia are swaddled in heavy blankets because of the cold weather, she said, and most become Vitamin D-deficient because they lack exposure to the sun.
In Haiti, the biggest need is iron, Rawson said.
Rawson said that when he is in Haiti, he looks past the devastation and sees hope, progress and a bright future.
Though the people still are suffering from the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck in January 2010 and the cholera outbreak that followed, Haitians overall are vibrant, hopeful and happy, he said.
"There is so much love and support for Haiti, and the beauty of Haiti is its energy and positive life force," said Rawson. "They've grieved their losses and put it in the past."
Some construction has begun, though many people still live in tent cities, Rawson said, adding that it will take "years and years" before the capital of Port-au-Prince is rebuilt. The city was one of the areas hit hardest by the earthquake.
The Brothers' Brother Foundation in Pittsburgh has raised more than $966,000 in cash for Haiti since the earthquake and has collected $43 million worth of material, medicine and food, said Luke Hingson, director of the North Side-based charity.
Pittsburgh-area doctors routinely travel to Haiti to provide medical services, Rawson said.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_737849.html

MALNUTRITION: India: Iron rich salt to fight malnutrition

Apr 21, 2011,
With high prevalence of anaemia in the country, the government has decided to promote iron fortified iodised salt as a measure to deal with malnutrition.
The decision was taken at a meeting held in the Prime Minister's Office on promoting consumption of iron fortified iodised salt.
The meeting attended by various ministries called for the urgent measures to tackle anaemia in India's population, particularly among adolescent girls, women and children.
Anaemia is caused by inadequate intake and poor absorption of iron. It can be prevented and cured by promoting consumption of iron rich foods and iron supplements.
The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, has developed technologies for the double fortification of salt with iodine and iron.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-21/health/29458814_1_iodised-salt-iron-fight-malnutrition

MALNUTRITION: Cash boost should help bring fortified rice and cassava to market

Anjali Nayar : 14 April 2011 : Nature

Golden rice (right) provides more vitamin A than normal rice.International Rice Research Institute

Nearly US$20 million in new grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be spent on getting nutritionally enhanced rice and cassava to market and decreasing malnourishment in Asia and Africa.
The grants will help in the development, testing and marketing of Golden Rice, which is fortified with vitamin A, in the Philippines and Bangladesh, and BioCassava Plus, a tuber fortified with vitamin A, iron and protein in Kenya and Nigeria.
In rich countries, people generally have access to a diverse diet and to foods that have been fortified with various essential nutrients, but these items are often unaffordable or unobtainable in the developing world.
People in poor nations, especially farmers, often only have access to what they grow. In parts of Asia, people rely on rice for 50–80% of their daily calories, and around 70 million Africans rely on cassava. It's no surprise then, that vitamin and mineral deficiencies affect more than two billion people worldwide, and contribute to around 7% of deaths and 10% of the disease burden in low-income countries, according to Juan Pablo Pena-Rosas, coordinator of the Micronutrients Unit at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
Biofortified, or nutritionally enhanced, staple crops could thus greatly reduce the death and disease burden related to nutritional deficiencies, according to Lawrence Kent, head of agricultural development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington. Several research groups are working on fortified varieties of bean, rice, maize, sweet potato, cowpea, peanut, wheat, pumpkin and banana.
"I'm optimistic that biofortification can help to improve people's health and lives because we are using sustainable foods that people already grow," Kent says.

Lab or field?
Plants can be fortified either through conventional plant breeding or using biotechnology to alter its genome and increase its nutritional yield, explains Pena-Rosas.
The firm HarvestPlus in Washington DC, which released orange sweet potato containing 50% of the daily vitamin A requirement in Uganda and Mozambique in 2007, uses traditional breeding techniques. Both Golden Rice and BioCassava Plus are genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and have attracted their fair share of negative attention from the anti-GMO lobby. "Anything that involves biotechnology involves a level of controversy," explains Kent. "But we need to be open and data-focused."
The Gates Foundation grants will help to generate the data needed for Golden Rice and BioCassava Plus to meet food safety and environmental regulations. "These crops will not be used by farmers or consumers until they pass tests for biosafety in each country," says Gerard Barry, who coordinates the Golden Rice Network at the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños in the Philippines.
Golden Rice is expected to receive regulatory approval in the Philippines in 2013 and in Bangladesh in 2015, according to Ingo Potrykus, a retired geneticist at the Institute of Plant Sciences in Zurich, Switzerland, and one of the rice's inventors. BioCassava Plus should follow a few years later — the team hopes to obtain approvals by 2017, according to Martin Fregene, a plant geneticist and the director of the BioCassava Plus Program, based in St Louis, Missouri.
"As long as we can show that [these products] add value and are safe, there is no mother who would not want to use them to increase the health of her kids," says Fregene.
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110414/full/news.2011.233.html

MALNUTRITION: The anomaly: Over and under weight

Thursday, March 17, 2011

As world nutrition experts gather this week at the WHO headquarters to discuss ways to fight global malnutrition, VOA News examines the growing issues of "undernutrition and obesity, which affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide."
While nearly four million children die each year from symptoms of undernutrition, "including underweight, and vitamin and mineral deficiency, particularly of vitamin A, iron, iodine and zinc," an estimated "43 million children over age five are overweight," according to the WHO. Of these, 35 million live in developing countries, the news service writes.
"We are seeing that often we have in the same countries, at the same time, the presence of undernutrition and overweight," Francesco Branca, WHO's director of Nutrition for Health and Development, said. "We have the greatest increase in overweight in Africa, particularly North Africa, and we now can say that perhaps the proportion of the number of children who are overweight is actually larger in developing countries than in developed countries," Branca added (Schlein, 3/16).
In Africa, "[t]he number of overweight … children under five has tripled to 13.5 million in 20 years," jumping from 4 percent of the total under-five population in 1990 to 8.5 percent in 2010, Agence France-Presse reports. "In Asia, the corresponding gain over the same period was from 3.2 percent to 4.9 percent," the news service notes.
"What we have seen in developing countries is that the offer of food is moving towards highly refined, industrial food which often have very high content of sugar and fat" and is "low in essential vitamins and minerals," Branca said, according to the news service.
Branca also noted how poor nutrition among pregnant women can lead to low birthweight infants, who are at an increased vulnerability to becoming overweight later in life. He added that "children with very low birthweight are less able to handle high energy density food"
http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2011/March/17/GH-031711-Malnutrition.aspx

MALNUTRITION: Phillipines: Iron fortified rice

by ES Gorne


SOUTHERN LEYTE, Mar 16 (PIA) - The Department of Health (DOH) felt relieved with the onset of iron fortified rice program as it brings solution among the much needed micronutrients that are essential to growth, health, and wellness of all, especially the children and women.
DOH Provincial Health Officer I Dr. Noel Lumen, head of the Technical Department at Salvacion Oppus Yniguez Memorial Provincial Hospital (SOYMPH) said malnutrition is still among the top ranking health concerns especially the micronutrients deficiency which are prevalent in the province during the nationwide launching of the i-Rice spearheaded by the National Food Authority (NFA) Tuesday, March 15 at Maasin City.
“ Filipinos are rice eaters while one of the nutritional disorders among Filipinos is iron deficiency which can best be addressed by fortifying rice with iron,” he added.
He said the national government is spearheading the Food Fortification Law or RA 8976 which calls for the mandatory fortification of micronutrients namely, Vitamin A, Iodine, Iron or Zinc to the staple.
He further said the Iodine deficiency is now responded with the fortification of said micronutrient in the salt commodity and most Sangkap Pinoy products are now fortified with Vitamin A, which all are readily available in the market.
What is most important is that the remedy to the iron deficiency problem in the country provided by the government comes at a low cost as one kilo of the I-rice is priced at P27, it was learned.
Among the activities during the launching, a declaration of commitment was solicited among the government implementers to help promote i-Rice which will hopefully address iron deficiency and implement pursuant to the law, rice industry players to help promote and sell I-Rice and for consumers to patronize and help promote i-Rice consumption.
Then it was followed with taste test of champorado, pospas with chicken meat and fried rice with bagoong, all made from i-Rice were tasted by the same group.
http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=1&t=1&id=22581

MALNUTRITION: Poverty and micronutrient need for brain development

Amy Norton:  Feb 18, 2011
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Giving impoverished infants iron and zinc supplements to prevent nutritional deficiencies may not have lasting benefits for their mental skills, a new study shows.
The findings, from a study of school-age children in northeastern Thailand, suggest that iron and zinc do not boost their IQ, memory or other intellectual abilities -- at least not when the minerals are given only during infancy.
Iron and zinc are important to normal brain development, and children in developing nations are at risk of deficiencies in both minerals.
Some studies have found that giving these children iron and zinc during infancy can improve their blood levels of the nutrients, and possibly help them reach some developmental milestones sooner -- like walking on their own.
But little has been known about whether those supplements have lasting benefits.
In the new study, researchers assessed 560 nine-year-olds in Thailand who, as infants, had been randomly assigned to have supplements of iron, zinc, both nutrients, or a placebo (a substance that looked like the real supplements but didn't contain any nutrients). The infants received the supplements or the placebo for 6 months, starting between the ages of 4 and 6 months.
At the age of 9 years, the children were given a variety of standard tests of their IQ, memory, attention and school performance. Overall, the researchers found no differences in the average test scores of children who had received iron, zinc or the placebo.
But the findings do not necessarily mean that iron and zinc supplements offer no brain benefit to children in the developing world.
"It is too soon to tell," said senior researcher Dr. Reynaldo Martorell, of Emory University in Atlanta, an author of the report that appears in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
One possibility, Martorell told Reuters Health in an email, is that the supplements need to be started sooner -- given to mothers during pregnancy -- and continued through at least a child's first 2 years.
A recent study of schoolchildren in rural Nepal found that when mothers took iron and folic acid during pregnancy, their kids did better on tests of intelligence and fine motor skills.
But it's also possible, according to Martorell, that iron and zinc, or any two nutrients, are not enough. "Maybe all nutrient intakes need to be improved, not just two," he said.
"I think the evidence will eventually show that in order to have long-term benefits on (the brain), major deficiencies in early life -- such as iron and zinc, but others as well -- need to be addressed," Martorell said.
Still, the researcher added, there are many short-term reasons to ensure that infants and children in the developing world have enough iron and zinc. There is some evidence, for example, that zinc supplements help prevent or treat diarrhea -- a major killer of children in poor nations.
Iron supplements can also prevent some cases of anemia, a disorder in which the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity is reduced -- causing problems like fatigue, dizziness and breathlessness.
Few children in the current study had overt iron deficiency as infants, when their supplements were started. But worldwide, iron deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder, affecting 2 billion people, according to the World Health Organization.

SOURCE: bit.ly/dLqFS5 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online January 26, 2011
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3604033512937490051

MALNUTRITION: Researchers boost protein content of GM cassava

Zoraida Portillo : 21 February 2011
 Cassava's nutrient content could be increased by traditional breeding or GM methods: Flickr/Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

[LIMA] The transformation of cassava from a starchy staple lacking in protein to a cheap supply of protein for food, feed and industry, may have come a step closer now that scientists have boosted the crop's protein content.
Cassava is a staple food in many developing countries but has little protein and micronutrients. But although cassava is rich in energy, only 2–3 per cent of its tubers (the edible roots) are made up of protein, giving it one of the lowest protein-to-energy ratios of any staple. Cereals, for example contain 7–14 per cent of protein.
But new research shows that cassava can be genetically modified to contain zeolin protein — increasing its protein levels to 12.5 per cent. The findings were published in PLoS ONE last month (25 January) by a team of US and Puerto Rican scientists.
According to the authors, a two-year-old child that gets half of their energy from cassava could increase their protein intake from 35 per cent of their daily requirement to more than 100 per cent by switching to the GM crop.
"This illustrates that genetic modification of cassava could be a potentially important component of delivering enhanced nutrition to at-risk populations in the tropics," the paper says.
The research is part of ongoing efforts to improve cassava's nutritional quality.
"The goal is to stack several traits such as vitamin A, protein, iron and zinc," Claude Fauquet, lead author and the director of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center's International Laboratory for Tropical Agricultural Biotechnology, United States, told SciDev.Net. "For now we have stacked vitamin A and protein and it is possible to get yellow roots with 40 parts per million carotene [about 11 times the normal level in cassava roots] and ten per cent dry weight protein," he said, adding that the plants are being assessed in the field.
But Nagib Nassar, a professor emeritus and well-known cassava breeder, said that the crop suffered from the same problem as all GM crops in that it has "a new genetic structure — not natural — that has not passed through natural selection, so we don't know how this genotype adapts to the environment".
He added that the paper had not provided information about the productivity or palatability of the new cassava strain.
Rodomiro Ortiz, an advisor leading international institutes on crop breeding, said transgenic biofortification was just one of many options for improving cassava, and added that wild and indigenous cassava varieties "are an important source of genes" to improve cassava's micronutrient levels.
Both Ortiz and Nassar referred to the success of a variety of cassava root obtained by conventional breeding and released in Brazil, which tastes good and contains more than 50 times the amount of beta carotene than common varieties.
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/researchers-boost-protein-content-of-gm-cassava-1.html

MALNUTRITION: Ghana: nationwide food fortification project

The Food and Drugs Board has started a nationwide food fortification project to address the problem of malnutrition among children.

For starters, cooking oil and wheat flour are to be fortified with essential nutrients.
The Project Manager, Richard Odum Nyumuah said the primary target of the project are children between the ages of 2 – 5 and women.
Explaining the rationale for targeting this category of people, Mr Nyumuah said “the idea is that children are very active and because they are now growing, they need nutrients and vitamins to grow well. Women through their activities and life cycles lose a lot of blood” and need to replenish that.
He said the FDB is working to ensure manufacturers of the products stated fortify them with the requisite nutrients.
http://news.myjoyonline.com/health/201102/61042.asp

MALNUTRITION: Tanzania: Call to teach primary school pupils farming

Angel Navuri : 14th February 2011

The government has been advised to re-introduce the teaching of agriculture in primary schools to equip pupils with knowledge which they can apply towards the realisation of Kilimo Kwanza.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Guardian during a conference on Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health, the Director General for International Food Policy Institute, Shenggen Fan said by introducing the subject in primary schools it will help to create the foundation for future experts who will make the Kilimo Kwanza initiative reality.
“We need to have agriculture experts in future and the subject has to be introduced to the individuals from primary school level,” he said, noting that the subject is currently taught mainly in colleges and universities.
Fan also advised the government of Tanzania to come up with a new paradigm for agricultural development whereby agricultural growth will not only increase production and reduce poverty but also improve nutrition.
He said agricultural experts in the country should link agriculture with health and nutrition as a way of reducing malnutrition.
The question facing Tanzania is how to set priorities and sequence interventions to maximise the benefits from the dynamic and nonlinear relationship between growth and nutrition while also paying attention to the role of conditional factors, he said.
“Experts should not influence farmers on increasing production without linking it with health and this is how we will reduce malnutrition for many children and women who have been affected,” Fan added.
He said as part of overall economic growth, agricultural growth has an important role to play in reducing and preventing under nutrition through a number of channels.
He said its impact extends from increased household ability to purchase and produce more nutritious food to economy-wide effects, such as increasing government revenues to health, infrastructure and nutrition intervention programmes.
According to the DG other factors, such as infrastructure, the status of women including their educational level and land distribution, may contribute to how well agricultural growth translates into nutritional improvements.
He said: “The question we face now is to what extent can agricultural growth and growth in particular sub-sectors of agriculture can be a springboard for nutritional improvement through such channels as increased agricultural production and lower food prices.”
Opening the conference, India Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh said malnutrition remained a serious problem in many parts of Africa and other developing countries. Globally, nearly 1 billion people still go hungry daily.
“Nearly one in four children under age of five is underweight. The problem of hidden hunger that is, deficiency of essential vitamins and minerals, such as iron, Vitamin A and iodine is also severe. Nutrition is therefore, a serious challenge that has not received the attention it truly deserves,” explained the PM
According to him, malnutrition is not only a consequence of poverty; it is also a cause of poverty. A malnourished child is more vulnerable to diseases and less able to earn a living. The complexity of causes that underlie malnutrition calls for a multi-sectoral strategy to address the three key issues of availability, access and absorption.
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=26043

MALNUTRITION: Burundi : Fortified Rice for 15,000 School-Children

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.
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.
http://www.portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/noticias/africa/2011/0/1/Fortified-Rice-for-000-School-Children,3e589159-70df-45f3-8c30-9517e882585b.html

MALNUTRITION: With a Little Innovation -- Bread Is (a Better) Life

January 8, 2011Marc Van Ameringen: Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition

The sight of stacks of baladi bread piled high in market places is a common one in Egypt. This mainstay of Egyptian diets, while tasty, cheap and filling, provides calories but not necessary micronutrients. Millions of Egyptians suffer the effects of poor nutrition, including preventable miscarriages, birth defects and delayed physical and cognitive development. Iron and folic acid deficiencies lead to many health problems, most significantly anemia and neural tube defects in children which can be life-threatening and cause-life long disabilities.
Malnutrition remains arguably the world's most serious, but least addressed, global health issue. More than 2 billion people are impacted globally and more than 3.5 million young children die each year from lack of proper nutrition. For those that survive, inadequate nutrition during the early years of life has permanent and life-long consequences. Research shows that adequate maternal and child nutrition during the first 1,000 days -- from conception through year two -- shapes a child's physical and mental capabilities for their lifetime. We can't "go back" or address deficiencies later in life - damage done during this window is permanent.
For millions in Egypt, baladi bread is a critical part of daily sustenance; a key staple food that is deeply ingrained in the Egyptian culture. But what if this daily bread could not only satisfy hunger but also improve the cognitive and physical potential of the next generation?
That is indeed what is happening. The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), World
Food Programme (WFP) and Egypt's Ministry of Social Solidarity are fortifying baladi bread with
micronutrients like iron and folic acid which are vital to a child's development. Millions of Egyptians are benefiting and this newly fortified baladi bread has the potential to protect entire generations. The government, global health community, businesses and civic organizations are all realizing that it is access to nutritious, quality food for the poor -- and not just access to quantities of food - that is critical.
The focus is no longer simply to eat, but to eat well. This is a factor which affects not only the poor, but increasingly the well off in every society. This past year, in the U.S., one in four children endured hunger and food insecurity. It is likely that the 17 million children who face hunger in this country will suffer life-long consequences as a result of having limited access to quality food. Without nutritious foods they are more likely to suffer from weak immune systems, colds, behavioral difficulties and impaired academic performance. Nutritious food, whether here, or Egypt, is fundamental to unlocking human potential.
While serious, malnutrition is entirely within our grasp to prevent. There are well-tested and cost-effective approaches common in rich countries, such as fortification with vitamins and minerals of staple crops and condiments, and ensuring pregnant mothers and babies six months and older have access to nutritious products. GAIN is working with hundreds of local companies to create nutritious products that are as varied as fortified flour in Africa, soy sauce in China and biscuits in India.
Nevertheless, today there remains a market failure in poor countries. Simply put, the majority of poor people do not have access to readily available and affordable nutritious food. For those children under two, who are most at risk from irreversible mental and physical damage from malnutrition, we need to stimulate business to produce affordable products that can make the difference for the rest of their lives.
Targeting these areas will promote innovation. It is innovation, like the fortified baladi bread reaching 52 million Egyptians every day, that will make the difference between surviving and thriving.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-van-ameringen/with-a-little-innovation-_b_806102.html

MALNUTRITION: BURUNDI: Fortified rice for 15,000 school-children

BUJUMBURA, 5 January 2011 (IRIN)

  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

MALNUTRITION: Nepal: Nutrition programme revamp on the cards

 2010-12-31 The Himalayan Times
KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Health and Population is set to upgrade nutrition programmes. This comes at a time when malnutrition is emerging as a major obstacle to realisation of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Secretary at the ministry, Dr Sudha Sharma, said the programme will address the nutrition needs of both mother and child from the time of conception. However, it will focus more on nutrition during the first 1000 days – 280 pre-delivery and 730 days after birth.
Although a global wave of 1000-day nutrition campaigns is fast emerging, Nepal is yet to introduce similar programmes. The programmes being implemented in Nepal follow similar patterns, said Sharma. She further added that scaling up proven life-saving interventions to improve maternal and child nutrition during 1000 days can help reduce both maternal and child mortality rates. At present, the ministry is upgrading the micro-nutrient programme with special focus on Karnali region, establishment of malnutrition rehabilitation centres in remote districts, improvement of wheat and salt programme and distribution of iron, zinc and folic acid.
While malnutrition reduction rate is 0.6 per cent, almost half of the children under five in the country are stunted, more than 38 per cent are underweight and 13 per cent are wasting as a result of malnutrition, according to National Demographic Health Survey -2006.
The highest prevalence of underweight children was recorded in the hills of far and mid-west and central regions. Figures for central and far western Tarai show that 20 per cent of the children are wasting away. Humla has the highest prevalence of stunted growth where 72 per cent children are estimated to be short for their age.
As children develop their intelligence during the first 1000 days, this period is considered crucial, said Dr Sharma. According to her, malnutrition – one of the world’s most serious and least addressed problems – is behind 3.5 million deaths each year.
Infant mortality and maternal mortality are directly associated with micro-nutrient deficiency.
http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Nutrition+programme+revamp+on+the+cards&NewsID=271284