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March 6, 2009
Source:
AVRDC - The World Vegetable
Center Newsletter
 An
estimated 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A-deficient children become
blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing
their sight (WHO). Vitamin A deficiency is a public health
problem in more than half of all
countries, especially in Africa and Southeast Asia, hitting
hardest young children and pregnant women in low-income
countries.
High beta-carotene tomatoes could be a principal crop in the
battle to fight vitamin A deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa.
Beta-carotene is converted by the human body into vitamin A.
Two high beta-carotene lines from AVRDC – The World Vegetable
Center, CLN2366A and CLN2366B, recently have been evaluated for
adaptation to the semi-arid conditions in West Africa. The
testing was part of the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation-funded project “Vegetable Breeding and
Seed Systems for Poverty Alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa
(vBSS).”
“The successful inclusion of a crop into agricultural production
systems requires that the new varieties must
be tested and shown to be adapted to farmer practices and local
climatic conditions,” says Dr. Peter Hanson, tomato breeder and
Global Theme Leader: Breeding at AVRDC – The World Vegetable
Center.
Testing at the Samanko station in Mali consisted of 20 tomato
entries: the two high betacarotene tomatoes (CLN2366A and
CLN2366B), 13 redfruited standard tomato lines from the Center,
and five well-adapted checks. The results were promising for the
two healthy, high betacarotene candidates. They yielded 23 and
28 t/ha, respectively under hot-wet conditions. CLN2366B yielded
significantly more than most red-fruited tomatoes, but
significantly less than the welladapted checks.
The fruit of both lines is orange in color, an indication of
their high beta-carotene content. Testing in the laboratory
proves that they contain 10 to 12 times more betacarotene than
normal red-fruited tomato. “In addition, they flower early and
have determinate vines,” says Sokona Dagnoko, a vegetable
breeder from the Center’s Subregional Office for West and
Central Africa in Bamako, Mali. “Both CLN2366A and CLN2366B have
qualities favored by West African farmers and seem to be rather
well adapted to the hotwet season in the region.”
Year-round production and consumption of high beta-carotene
tomatoes like CLN 2366 and CLN2366B would help fight vitamin A
deficiency in West Africa. |
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