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Neural tube defects (NTDs) are the second most common birth defects in humans and are associated with high rates of neonatal mortality, morbidity, disability, psychological and economic costs. Roughly 200,000 neonates are born with NTDs in low- and middle-income countries. To reduce the risks associated with NTDs, pregnant women are recommended to supplement their diets with folate tablets or to consume foods fortified with folic acid. Despite the introduction of a mandatory fortification program of maize meal with folic acid, in Zimbabwe, there is a paucity of literature about the perceptions of individuals towards fortified foods, as well as the storage and processing practices of fortified maize meal. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, as well as, storage and processing practices of folic acid-fortified maize meal in urban poor women. Data on knowledge and practices on fortified maize was gathered using a structured questionnaire from 630 women of childbearing age from low-income suburbs in Kwekwe town, Zimbabwe. The results showed that a paltry 26.3% of the respondents knew about folic acid, 22.5% knew about the effects of folic acid deficiency, 13.8% knew foodstuffs containing folic acid, 4% knew about food fortification and 35.6% had bought and used folic acid fortified maize meal before. Availability and accessibility were the main drivers to purchasing fortified maize meal (90%). There was no significant relationship (p < 0.05) between age and folic acid knowledge as well as between level of education and folic acid knowledge. Furthermore, the result indicates that the households were engaged in poor storage practices of the folic acid fortified maize meal. There was a significant relationship between the level of education and knowledge about food fortification. In conclusion, urban women's knowledge regarding folic acid and fortified maize meal is very low in Zimbabwe and households also store the folic acid fortified maize meal under conditions that speed deterioration of the folic acid. Folic acid awareness campaigns are recommended for people to benefit from the government of Zimbabwe's fortification programme. Key words: Neural tube defects, maize, folate, deficiency, fortification, women, INTRODUCTION Micronutrient deficiency, also known as hidden hunger, is one of the global 'triple burden' of malnutrition, particularly in developing countries [1]. Globally, over 2 billion people suffer from hidden [...]

Chickpea is one of the new crops being grown in Zimbabwe for its plethora of benefits in crop production and human diet. However, like most grain legumes preliminary research has shown that chickpea seed has a problem of poor germination hindering the realization of the crops full potential yield. Seed priming has a potential to improve germination of chickpea. Therefore, a laboratory experiment was carried out to determine the effects of seed priming on seed germination. The experiment was laid out as a 4 × 5 factorial in completely randomised design (CRD) with 20 treatments replicated three times. The treatments investigated were five seed priming methods viz hydro-priming, halo-priming (KNO3), prechill, preheat, and no priming (control); and four chickpea varieties that were ICCV00305, ICCV03404, ICCV97105, and ICCV92944. Hydro-priming involves soaking seed for 24 hours and leaving it to dry in the laboratory for 24 hours at room temperature before it is planted. Halo-priming was done by soaking the seed in a solution with 2.4 g of potassium nitrate and 1.2 ml of distilled water. Prechill treatment involves subjecting seed at a temperature of 10°C for 7 days before planted. Preheating was done by subjecting the seed in an oven at 35° C for 30 minutes. The parameters measured were germination percent, speed of germination, radicle and plumule length, and seedling vigor index. The results showed that preheating and halo-priming chickpea seed significantly p

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd) is a nutritious pseudocereal that is more stress-tolerant compared with traditional cereals. It is an excellent example of a climate-smart crop that is more resilient to climate change compared with barley. The purpose of the study was to investigate the optimum malting conditions required to produce quinoa malt using barley as a control. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the influence of the two malting parameters steeping time and germination time on Brix (wort extract), diastatic power (DP), and free amino nitrogen (FAN) of the malt. The temperature was set at 15°C during the steeping process. Steeping time ranging from 12 to 48 hours and germination time ranging from 24 to 96 hours were designed using a central composite design (CCD). The kilning temperature for all malts was 65°C. For quinoa malt, there was a notable weak positive correlation between germination time and Brix (r = +0.119). However, there was a strong positive correlation between steeping time and diastatic power (r = +0.893). A similar trend was noted for barley with a weak positive correlation between germination time and Brix (r = +0.142). A strong positive correlation was also recorded between steeping time and diastatic power (r = +0.897) during the malting of barley. There was a relatively stronger correlation between steeping time and FAN (r = +0.895) than germination time and FAN (r = +0.275) in quinoa malt. The optimum values for the malting of barley were 47.68 hrs steeping time and 82.55 hrs germination time with a desirability value of 1.00. The responses for the optimised barley malt were 8.25°Bx, 162.28 mg/L, and 271.69°L for Brix, FAN, and diastatic power, respectively. To produce quinoa malt with Brix, FAN, and diastatic power of 8.37°Bx, 165.60 mg/L, and 275.86°L, respectively, malting conditions of 47.69 hrs steeping time and 95.81 hrs germination time are required. It was noted that quinoa is a very good candidate for producing high-quality malt for the brewing process.

A field experiment was conducted in 2018/2019 growing season at the Scientific Industrial Research and Development Center under irrigated conditions using the simple alpha lattice (7∗7) design, with three replications. The objective of the study was to determine the performance of 44 elite rice lines that were selected and shared from elite doubled haploid germplasm and five cultivars were used as checks. All evaluated genotypes exhibited significant variation in the traits measured except for number of grains/panicle, total tillers/plant, and effective tillers/plant. Elite line 70462 was found to be the highest yielding, with yield advantage of 66% over the high yielding local check (Nerica 7). High values for broad sense heritability were recorded for days to 50% heading, panicle length, culm length, number of filled grains/panicle, 1000-grain weight, grain length, grain shape, and grain yield and indicated lesser influence of environment in expression of these traits, hence amenable to simple selection. Correlation analysis revealed that grain yield manifested significantly positive correlation with filled grains/panicle contributing the highest correlation (r = 0.784), followed by culm length (r = 0.605), spikelet fertility/panicle (r = 0.677), grain length (r = 0.551), 1000-grain weight (r = 0.518), panicle length (r = 0.449), and number of grains/panicle (r = 0.328). Based on grain yield, number of filled grains/panicle and spikelet fertility/panicle, panicle length, and earliness, lines 70462, 60143, 70383, Arica 3, Sahel 177, 6040, 70537, 60409, and 70476 had the best performance. Selection of these traits would be more effective for yield improvement in rice and these promising lines could be used in the varietal development and can be tested in multilocational trials and on-farm trials in Zimbabwe with the possibility of release and commercialization.

Neural tube defects (NTDs) are the second most common birth defects in humans and are associated with high rates of neonatal mortality, morbidity, disability, psychological and economic costs. Roughly 200,000 neonates are born with NTDs in low- and middle-income countries. To reduce the risks associated with NTDs, pregnant women are recommended to supplement their diets with folate tablets or to consume foods fortified with folic acid. Despite the introduction of a mandatory fortification program of maize meal with folic acid, in Zimbabwe, there is a paucity of literature about the perceptions of individuals towards fortified foods, as well as the storage and processing practices of fortified maize meal. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, as well as, storage and processing practices of folic acidfortified maize meal in urban poor women. Data on knowledge and practices on fortified maize was gathered using a structured questionnaire from 630 women of childbearing age from low-income suburbs in Kwekwe town, Zimbabwe. The results showed that a paltry 26.3% of the respondents knew about folic acid, 22.5% knew about the effects of folic acid deficiency, 13.8% knew foodstuffs containing folic acid, 4% knew about food fortification and 35.6% had bought and used folic acid fortified maize meal before. Availability and accessibility were the main drivers to purchasing fortified maize meal (90%). There was no significant relationship (p < 0.05) between age and folic acid knowledge as well as between level of education and folic acid knowledge. Furthermore, the result indicates that the households were engaged in poor storage practices of the folic acid fortified maize meal. There was a significant relationship between the level of education and knowledge about food fortification. In conclusion, urban women's knowledge regarding folic acid and fortified maize meal is very low in Zimbabwe and households also store the folic acid fortified maize meal under conditions that speed deterioration of the folic acid. Folic acid awareness campaigns are recommended for people to benefit from the government of Zimbabwe's fortification programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] is an important underutilised staple food crop in South Africa, with a lot of potential to address food insecurity among poor rural households. Development of high yielding stable taro cultivars is one of the most important goals of plant breeders. Twenty-nine taro accessions collected from major taro producing regions of the country were evaluated for growth performance, yield potential and stability under dryland conditions at two sites (Umbumbulu and Roodeplaat) in 2013, 2014 and 2015 cropping seasons. The experiment was laid in a randomised complete block design replicated three times. Growth and yield traits were measured. Analysis of variance and correlation analysis was done on all measured traits. The genotype by environment interaction was analysed using additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI). As a result, significant variation was observed for most of the traits except number of leaves and leaf width as well as number of suckers, while all the traits showed significant variation for location by year interaction. Number of corms showed significant variation for location by year by genotype interaction among all the traits evaluated. Genotype effect was highly significant (p

Accurate morphological characterisation of plants is used for selecting the best performing varieties. The morphological markers can be visualised without molecular techniques making it the easiest way of identifying variation within varieties. Characterisation of Verticillium wilt tolerant lines in cotton variety is important in understanding the underlying genetic control of Verticillium wilt tolerance. Five local varieties with varying tolerance to the disease and different yield potentials were crossed in a half diallel mating design in 2013. The ten crosses and five parental lines that were produced by the mating system were subjected to Verticillium wilt by artificial inoculation in 2013/14. These cotton lines were characterised using agronomic and morphological markers to identify Verticillium wilt resistance. Screening for Verticillium wilt resistance was done to identify morphological and agronomical markers which were used to group similar lines through cluster analysis. Three parental lines were identified with good morphological and agronomical performance that could be used in Verticillium wilt resistance breeding. These were CRI-MS-1, SZ9314 and BC853 which produced superior offspring in the diallel mating system. Furthermore, qualitative morphological traits and the agronomical traits were used as markers for selection of Verticillium wilt resistance cotton germplasm.

Micronutrient deficiencies have been identified as major public health problems affecting a large part of the world's population. Biofortification of staple crops like maize has been proposed as one of the most cost effective and feasible approaches to combat micronutrient deficiencies. Studies have shown that provitamin A from biofortified crops is highly bioavailable and has the capacity to improve vitamin A status of vulnerable groups. Most people in sub-Saharan Africa subsist on maize and many people may benefit from consumption of provitamin A carotenoid biofortified maize, especially women and children. With the exception of transgenic golden rice, biofortified crops have received considerable acceptance by most communities. Negative perceptions associated with yellow maize do not affect orange maize, which is, for example, well-liked in rural Zambia. With proper policy frameworks and full commercialization, provitamin A maize can address the problem of vitamin A deficiencies among poor nations with maize-based diets.

Drought is a huge limiting factor in maize production, mainly in the rain-fed agriculture of sub-Saharan Africa. In response to this threat, drought-tolerant (DT) maize varieties have been developed with an aim to ensure maize production under mild drought conditions. We conducted a study to assess the impact of smallholder farmers' adoption of DT maize varieties on total maize production. Data for the study came from a survey of 200 randomly sampled households in two districts of Chiredzi and Chipinge in southeastern Zimbabwe. The study found that 93% of the households were growing improved maize varieties and that 30% of the sampled households were growing DT maize varieties. Total maize yield was 436.5 kg/ha for a household that did not grow DT maize varieties and 680.5 kg/ha for households that grew DT maize varieties. We control for the endogeneity of the DT adoption variable, by using the control function approach to estimate total maize production in a Cobb-Douglas model. The results show that households that grew DT maize varieties had 617 kg/ha more maize than households that did not grow the DT maize varieties. Given that almost all farmers buy their seeds in the market, a change in varieties to DT maize seeds gives an extra income of US$240/ha or more than nine months of food at no additional cost. This has huge implications in curbing food insecurity and simultaneously saving huge amounts of resources at the household and national levels, which are used to buy extra food during the lean season.