Elsevier

The Journal of Nutrition

Volume 136, Issue 4, April 2006, Pages 1064-1067
The Journal of Nutrition

Biofortification of Staple Food Crops1,2

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ABSTRACT

Deficiencies of vitamin A, iron, and zinc affect over one-half of the world's population. Progress has been made to control micronutrient deficiencies through supplementation and food fortification, but new approaches are needed, especially to reach the rural poor. Biofortification (enriching the nutrition contribution of staple crops through plant breeding) is one option. Scientific evidence shows this is technically feasible without compromising agronomic productivity. Predictive cost-benefit analyses also support biofortification as being important in the armamentarium for controlling micronutrient deficiencies. The challenge is to get producers and consumers to accept biofortified crops and increase their intake of the target nutrients. With the advent of good seed systems, the development of markets and products, and demand creation, this can be achieved.

KEY WORDS

biofortification
staple food crops
plant breeding
iron
zinc
vitamin A

Cited by (0)

1

Presented as part of the symposium “Food Fortification in Developing Countries” given at the 2005 Experimental Biology meeting, April 5, 2005, in San Diego, CA. The symposium was sponsored by the American Society for Nutrition and the Society for International Nutrition Research and was supported in part by an educational grant from Akzo Nobel, Inc. The proceedings are published as a supplement to The Journal of Nutrition. This supplement is the responsibility of the editors to whom the Editor of The Journal of Nutrition has delegated supervision of both technical conformity to the published regulations of The Journal of Nutrition and general oversight of the scientific merit of each article. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and are not attributable to the sponsors or the publisher, editor, or editorial board of The Journal of Nutrition. Guest editors for the symposium are Jere D. Haas and Dennis D. Miller, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Guest Editor Disclosure: Jere Haas and Dennis Miller have no relationships to disclose.

2

The HarvestPlus program is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, US Agency for International Development, UK Department for International Development, and the Danish International Development Agency.