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Zambia's maize seed industry is currently one of the strongest and most competitive in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper describes the changing structure of the maize seed industry and seed supply chain in Zambia. The aim of the paper is to propose elements of a marketing strategy for seed production and delivery of recently released, provitamin A-rich, orange maize varieties. Information sources include a thorough review of the literature, a statistical survey of farmers in the major maize-producing areas of the country, and key informant interviews conducted with seed company representatives. We discuss the merits of two strategies: (1) liberalizing the provision of original orange maize planting material to all seed companies with the aim of maximizing the impact of this public health intervention, and (2) exclusive rights granted to companies with the goals of preserving differentiated products and ensuring standard seed quality to protect the brand. We find that, exclusive or not, risk-sharing contracts with any company that takes up this product, as well as building and maintaining a unique brand for orange maize would be essential for the success of this product. [EconLit Classifications: Q130, Q160, Q180]. C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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.

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Background Vitamin A (VA) deficiency (VAD) affects ∼19 million pregnant women worldwide. The extent of VAD in Zambian women of reproductive age is unknown owing to lack of survey inclusion or the use of static serum retinol concentrations, a low-sensitivity biomarker. Objectives This cross-sectional study employed isotopic techniques to determine VA status with serum and milk among women aged 18–49 y (n = 197) either lactating with infants aged 0–24 mo or nonlactating with or without infants. Methods Assistants were trained and piloted data collection. Demographic data, anthropometry, and relevant histories were obtained including malaria and anemia. For retinol isotope dilution (RID), baseline fasting blood and casual breast milk samples were collected before administration of 2.0 μmol 13C2-retinyl acetate and 24-h dietary recalls. On day 14, blood (n = 144) and milk (n = 66) were collected. Prevalence of total liver VA reserves (TLR) ≤0.10 μmol/g was defined as VAD with comparison to the DRI assumption of 0.07 μmol/g as minimally acceptable for North Americans. Results When a 20% adjustment for dose lost to milk was made in the RID equation for lactation, mean total body VA stores (TBS) for lactating women were 25% lower than for nonlactating women (P < 0.01), which was not the case without adjustment (P = 0.3). Mean ± SD TLR for all women were 0.15 ± 0.11 μmol/g liver. Using retinol purified from breast milk instead of serum for RID analysis yielded similar TBS and TLR, which were highly correlated between methods (P < 0.0001). Serum retinol ≤0.70 μmol/L had 0% sensitivity using either VAD liver cutoff and milk retinol ≤1.0 μmol/L had 42% sensitivity for VAD at 0.10 μmol/g. Conclusions Determining accurate VA status among women of reproductive age, especially lactating women, forms a basis for extrapolation to the general population and informing policy development and program implementation.

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Biofortified maize hybrids with higher content of provitamin A (proA) were developed to target vitamin A deficient populations in Africa. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degradation of proA after processing, cooking and storage among the first wave of biofortified varieties released in Zambia. The biofortified maize hybrids according to the harvesting period contained 4–11 (green maize) and 5–8 (dry maize) ìg/g of proA on a dry weight basis, respectively. The effect on the degradation of proA varied among the different genotypes. One maize genotype showed 60% retention of proA after the maize was roasted for about 20 minutes, while no degradation was observed among the other genotypes. The retention of proA ranged from 61–85% after boiling for 35 minutes at 95oC. During storage of maize grains, most of the degradation occurred in the first 15 days of storage (52–56% retention) which then stabilized retaining 30–33% of proA after 6 months of storage. In conclusion, most of the proA degradation in biofortified maize hybrids occurred during storage compared with cooking processes and the magnitude of the effect varied among the different genotypes.

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