{"id":12959,"date":"2026-06-20T12:25:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/an-open-letter-to-nigeria\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T12:25:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:25:55","slug":"an-open-letter-to-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/an-open-letter-to-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"An Open Letter to Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 15 April 2009, a newspaper quoted an organization that warns about hazards of IITA improving cassava in Nigeria. The carelessness of their message amounts to a disservice to the Nigerian public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Consume  and enjoy, with great peace of mind, all crops that IITA works on, cassava, cowpea, bananas, plantain, yams,  and maize. Our improved varieties provide more protein  and vitamins, both necessary to good nutrition. The younger ones in your family will benefit greatly from consuming a mix of such healthy foods. These proteins  and vitamins are found naturally in the plant. We search the world \u2013 Africa, Americas, Asia &#8211; for different varieties to improve the ones that your family consumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The damage of poor nutrition in children is often irreversible. To the extent you can nourish the younger generation better; the life ahead of them will be improved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The newspaper message mentioned above which tried to scare Nigerians also left out the fact that Nigeria has extensive controls on the release of food plants  and organizations such as NAFDAC, are vigilant in checking for food contaminants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since its creation, over 40 years ago, IITA has never released anything that was harmful to anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hartmann<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Director General, IITA<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 15 April 2009, a newspaper quoted an organization that warns about hazards of IITA improving cassava in Nigeria. The carelessness of their message amounts to a disservice to the Nigerian public.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":12960,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[32],"news-type":[],"hub":[],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[187],"class_list":["post-12959","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-nigeria","item-year-187"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>An Open Letter to Nigeria - IITA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/an-open-letter-to-nigeria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Open Letter to Nigeria - IITA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On 15 April 2009, a newspaper quoted an organization that warns about hazards of IITA improving cassava in Nigeria. 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