Vitamin A cassava in Nigeria: crop development and delivery

Biofortified vitamin A “yellow” cassava can help address the adverse health effects of vitamin A deficiency. By 2016, HarvestPlus and its partners had successfully developed and delivered vitamin A cassava varieties to more than one million farming households in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). HarvestPlus has established the proof of concept that vitamin A cassava varieties can be developed without compromising yield levels and that these varieties are widely accepted. The delivery program has shown that farmers are willing to grow vitamin A cassava varieties and consumers are willing to buy and eat vitamin A cassava products. This paper summarizes the country, nutritional and consumer background, the crop development and release of biofortified vitamin A cassava varieties in Nigeria, progress in monitoring and evaluation of results, and synthesizes lessons learned and future challenges.Keywords: Biofortification, Vitamin A Deficiency, Cassava, Vitamin A Cassava, Yellow Cassav

Orange maize in Zambia: crop development and delivery experience

Biofortified vitamin A “orange” maize can help address the adverse health effects of vitamin A deficiency. By 2016, HarvestPlus and its partners had developed six orange maize varieties and delivery efforts have reached more than 100,000 farming households in Zambia. HarvestPlus has established the proof of concept, that vitamin A maize varieties can be developed without compromising yield levels and that these varieties can deliver sufficient quantities of vitamin A to improve nutrition. The delivery program has also shown that farmers are willing to grow orange maize varieties and consumers are willing to buy and eat orange maize products. This paper summarizes the country’s nutritional and consumer backgrounds, the crop development and release of orange maize varieties, the delivery efforts in Zambia and impact measurement. It also synthesizes lessons learned and future challenges.Keywords: Biofortification, Vitamin A Deficiency, Orange Maize, Vitamin A Maize, Zambi

The Contested Politics of Corporate Governance: The Case of the Global Reporting Initiative

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has successfully become institutionalized as the preeminent global framework for voluntary corporate environmental and social reporting. Its success can be attributed to the “institutional entrepreneurs” who analyzed the reporting field and deployed discursive, material, and organizational strategies to change it. GRI has, however, fallen short of the aspirations of its founders to use disclosure to empower nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The authors argue that its trajectory reflects the power relations between members of the field, their strategic choices and compromises, their ability to mobilize alliances and resources, and constraints imposed by the broader institutions of financial and capital markets. The authors draw three notable implications from this study. First, institutional theory needs to pay more attention to economic structures, strategies, and resources. Second, institutional entrepreneurship by relatively weak societal groups such as NGOs is inherently constrained by the structural power of wider institutions and by the compromises required to initiate change. Third, the strategies of NGOs represent a form of power capable of shifting, if not transforming, the field of corporate governance

County-Based Priority Assessment Methodology for Phasing of Wellhead Protection Programs

ABSTRACT-Setting priorities to schedule and implement wellhead protection programs for municipal and community drinking water supplies is presented in the framework of a general risk assessment approach. This includes a hazard identification procedure representing the likelihood of contaminants being released to the surface environment, a hydrogeologic vulnerability assessment representing the risk of contaminants entering the groundwater supply, and an impact assessment, strongly linked to the population at risk. A methodology was developed to aggregate information on a county basis for Minnesota. The resulting composite risk index map shows a number of counties in the central part of the state roughly following a line from the Twin Cities Metropolitan area along two major transportation axes to the St. Cloud and Fargo-Moorhead area, and toward the south to the Rochester-Austin area to which a high priority for phasing-in of the program is recommended. These counties emerge in addition to those in the southeastern karst area of Minnesota that traditionally have been identified as vulnerable areas

Iron beans in Rwanda: crop development and delivery experience

HarvestPlus and its partners have successfully developed and delivered iron bean varieties to more than one million farming households in Rwanda, DRC, and Uganda to help combat the adverse health effects of iron deficiency widespread in these countries. Focusing primarily on Rwanda, this chapter summarizes the country, nutritional and consumer background, crop development, release, and delivery of iron bean varieties and synthesizes lessons learned and future challenges