Global Harvest Alliance

Global Harvest Alliance seeks to eradicate childhood malnutrition by creating low cost, nutritionally complete foods and crops to prevent and treat all forms of under-nutrition, an effort which will combine interventions in health, nutrition and agriculture.

MISSION | TEAM MEMBERS | PROGRAM NEWS | CONTACT

Mission

GHA is combating the global crisis of childhood malnutrition through treatment and preventive efforts. A peanut-butter based ready-to-use therapeutic food, fortified with micronutrients and extremely dense in protein and energy, has already been implemented in Malawi and throughout the world with tremendous success among children suffering from severe malnutrition. In the next 10 years, this treatment program will expand to include care for children with moderate malnutrition and malnourished adults with and without HIV infection. GHA also includes the effort of BioCassavaPlus (BC+), a multidisciplinary, scientific team that has accepted the challenge of making cassava a more nutritionally balanced staple plant food. Cassava is a potato-like tuber that has high caloric content but lacks nearly all vitamins and minerals. Over half a million of the poorest sub-Saharan Africans rely on this food as a staple crop, but because it is not nutritionally balanced these people suffer severe micronutrient deficiencies. BC+ aims to improve protein, zinc, iron, and vitamin A and E content in cassava while imparting plant virus resistance and postponing postharvest deterioration. GHA partnerships with teams in Nigeria and Kenya ensure that the intervention projects are offering culturally sensitive and practical solutions. Successes with this prevention program will be expanded to include improved sorghum and legume crops, as well, so the availability of bio-fortified crops will extend wherever malnutrition occurs.