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| Joane Nkuliye, a rural entrepreneur from Rwanda’s Eastern Province, grows biofortified beans on a commercial scale. |
This year's World Food Prize pays tribute to biofortification, an
intervention that strengthens efforts to address one of the world's most
insidious and pervasive public health challenges--hidden hunger.
That
is good news for the majority of the two billion people globally who
suffer from hidden hunger, and likewise for those fighting to end the
epidemic.
Hidden hunger is
the lack of essential vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) necessary
for a healthy and productive life. According to the World Health
Organization, zinc, iron and vitamin A are among the micronutrients most
lacking in diets globally.
The deficiency in these particular
micronutrients can lead to blindness, stunting, mental retardation,
learning disabilities, low work capacity, and even premature death.
The majority of
populations most affected by hidden hunger reside in the developing
world where regular access to important and effective interventions such
as supplementation and fortification is constrained by cost and
infrastructure challenges.
More than half of
women and three-quarters of children aged under five in India, for
example, are estimated to be iron deficient. The burden of hidden hunger
extends to economies. India alone loses over $12 billion in GDP
annually to vitamin and mineral deficiencies
Those populations
are also, unfortunately, unable to diversify their daily diet and,
therefore, their micronutrient intake since they rely largely on
macronutrient- and/or energy-rich but micronutrient-poor staple food
crops - rice, maize, cassava, beans, etc. - for sustenance. In India,
for instance, only about one in 10 children regularly consume iron-rich
food, while the proportion of children under two years of age who
regularly consume vitamin A-rich foods is less than half.
It is difficult to
imagine a reversal in the global incidence and impact of hidden hunger
without innovative new approaches to complement conventional nutrition
interventions.
Biofortification is
not the silver bullet, but it can significantly expand the reach of
nutrition to populations in need. Its underlying premise is that since
millions of people eat staple food crops daily, improving the
nutritional quality of these crops will lead to better nutritional and
health outcomes.
By breeding and
disseminating staple food crops rich in vitamins and minerals,
biofortification can substantially increase the intake of micronutrients
among households growing and consuming these improved crops.
Biofortification
has distinct advantages. It is sustainable; farmers and consumers who
adopt biofortified crops can grow and eat these crops over and over,
benefitting from the extra vitamins and minerals for free. It is a food
based approach that lets the plants do some of the work.
Biofortification is
also cost effective. After the initial outlay of funds, the recurrent
costs are minimal, and each dollar invested reaps $17 dollars' worth of
benefits.[3]
More importantly,
biofortification is effective. Recently published studies show that
crops biofortified with iron, such as pearl millet in India[4] and beans
in Rwanda, [5] can reverse iron deficiency. Sweet potato biofortified
with vitamin A reduced the incidence and duration of diarrhea among
children in Mozambique.[6] The evidence on the nutritional and health
impact of biofortified crops continues to grow as the crops gain
momentum around the world.
To date,
biofortified crops have been released in 30 countries, including India,
and are under testing in an additional 25. HarvestPlus and its partners
are developing and delivering these crops as public goods. At least four
million households in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have already been
reached with these nutritious crops. Scaling up delivery to reach a
billion people with biofortified foods by 2030 is a key objective of
HarvestPlus.
By shining the
spotlight on biofortification, the World Food Prize has brought greater
visibility and momentum to the strategy, and it can be the springboard
for its scale up and impact globally. India, a country that is no
stranger to agricultural innovations, will also play a major role in
scaling up biofortification.
The country has
already adopted several biofortified crops such as iron pearl millet,
zinc rice, and zinc wheat, with more on the way. In 2018 New Delhi will
host the Third Global Conference on Biofortification, which will explore
strategies and partnerships to broaden delivery and adoption of the
nutritious foods. This is a pivotal moment for biofortification and the
millions of households around the world who stand to benefit from its
success.
[1] World Bank
[2] UNICEF
[3] The Copenhagen Consensus
[4] The Journal of Nutrition
[5] The Journal of Nutrition
[6] World Development
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