The newly identified varieties of maize, Orange Maize is revealed to contain about 11microgram of Vitamin A per every gram of maize which is very essential for body growth and development.
This was revealed by the crops department of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in a program organized at Saamang in the Fanteakwa south district in the eastern region aimed at educating the farmers the need to plant this hybrid maize; Orange maize.
According to Dr Manfred Bondzie Ewool, a senior research scientist at CSIR, the project has been under study for close to 15 years and have finally come to a conclusion that Orange maize when taken would help the body since its bioavailability is very high and useful to the body.
“Our target was 7ʋg per gram vitamin A. As time went on our target was to get 15ʋg but now we have 11ʋg Vitamin A per gram. We have something called bioavailability. That’s after consuming the food and after digestion there should still be substantial amount of nutrients and that’s how we keep on reviewing pour targets. Thankfully just two weeks ago, we have clogged the 15ʋg per gram”, the director revealed.
However, since there various institutions working to establish the authenticity of every stage, they have now sent their findings to Accra to authenticate their findings.
The crop department has been working on the Orange maize since 2004. The Orange maize maize has 5 varieties namely; crop ahoɔfɛ, crop honampa, crop ahoɔden.
By: Radio1News|Ghana