CBN-V Video Archives - S6-03
Genetic Potential to Improve Carotene Content of Cassava and Strategies for its Deployment.

Bedoya J.M., J Echeverri, A.L. Chávez, H. Ceballos, J. Tohme and T. Sánchez

International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia h.ceballos@cgiar.org

        Over 100 million preschool-age children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, the single most important cause of blindness in children, which is also widespread among women in the reproductive age. Variability of vitamin A in the roots and leaves of different cassava genotypes were evaluated, as well as the stability of the vitamin after processing by three methods. The concentrations of the vitamin in the leaves were considerably higher, ranging from 12.05 to 96.42 mg/100 g FW than in the roots that contained between 0.10 and 1.04 mg/100 g FW. Stability of the vitamin after processing ranged between 40% and 61%. Preliminary results suggest that high concentration of the vitamin delays the onset of physiological deterioration in the roots. Different strategies are underway for successfully deploying high-carotene cassava varieties. For Africa, high carotene content will be combined with resistance to the cassava mosaic disease in collaboration with IITA. For the Americas and Asia, high vitamin A varieties will also be targeted to special food preparations, the snacks industry and animal feed. The trait is controlled by few genes and it is, therefore, suitable for transfer from clone to clone through genetic transformation.

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