Introduction
Humanity has seen the rise in terrorism, economic inflation and climate change since the dawn of the 21st century. These are the main threats to a peaceful and healthy life. However, many people are unaware of the hidden hunger that lurks in the background. Half of the world’s population is at risk of deficiency in vitamins, proteins and micronutrients.
According to statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO), an estimated 2 billion people suffer from anaemia worldwide. This is due to a deficiency in iron intake. This type of deficiency can have multiple negative effects on the population, including reduced lifespan and increased risk of developing diseases.
Growing evidence suggests that biofortification of staple food crops is an extremely effective strategy for addressing the problem of nutrient deficiency in developing countries. In countries such as these, a large section of the population cannot afford enough vegetables, fish, fruits, legumes and other food products to meet their essential nutritional requirements.
Biofortification refers to the process of creating micronutrients rich food crops by using best-practice breeding techniques or genetic modification with modern biotechnology. This is different from regular fortification because it does not add nutrients manually to food as it grows or matures.
Biofortification can be a cost-effective and realistic way to deliver micronutrients to populations that have limited access to other diets or micronutrient interventions.
Biofortification methods
Biofortification is based on two principal methods:
- Selective breeding This is the traditional method that requires crops with high nutritional value. It allows for crossbreeding of high-yielding varieties with plants that have high natural nutrition. Nutritionists must monitor the development of hybrid varieties to ensure that consumers can use the higher levels of nutrients and how they are affected by storage, cooking, and processing of the food crop.
- Genetic modification This is a way to alter the genetic makeup of a plant by inserting genes from another species, or wild crops of the same species. These genes can increase the production of certain nutrients or resistance to diseases. It could also improve the quality of the crop’s nutrients. Different genes that code for different nutrients may be added to a crop to increase its nutritional content. The most famous example is the golden rice that has been enhanced with beta-carotene. This is a precursor to Vitamin A.
Some of the most prominent biofortification programs around the globe include
- Biofortification of cassava and sorghum – amino acids and proteins.
- Maize, rice, wheat, beans and sweet potato are biofortified with zinc.
- Rice, beans, sweet potato, cassava and lentils are iron-bio fortified.
- Cassava, sweet potato and maize are fortified with vitamin A carotenoid.