India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that rice distributed under various government schemes will be fortified by 2024.
The ambitious target aims to fight malnutrition and micronutrient defficiencies affecting the growth of children in poor communities, according to the prime minister.
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More on hidden hunger and nutrition
What is biofortification?
Biofortification of staple crops such as rice is intended as a sustainable, cost-effective and food-based means of delivering target micronutrients to populations who do not have access to or cannot afford diverse diets and other existing interventions such as fortified foods and supplementation.
It is identified by the Copenhagen Consensus as one of the highest value-for-money interventions for micronutrient deficiency: gaining 17 USD worth of benefits for every 1 USD spent.
Staple cereals remain the key to solving global hunger
Global chronic hunger has declined faster than hidden hunger thanks to large-scale food security programs around the world. This is a testament to the power of development-driven research, unwavering level of commitment, science-based foresight, and global cooperation and investment. While there is still a need to eradicate chronic hunger in many areas, renewed investment efforts on nutrition-driven programs need to be made to also get rid of hidden hunger.
Value chains and policy work are crucial to the adoption of Golden Rice and other biofortified genetically modified crops
Biofortification, whether through conventional breeding or advanced biotechnology techniques such as genetic engineering, has been recognized as a complementary intervention for overcoming malnutrition. The continued prevalence of hidden hunger globally provides a compelling argument for a closer look at the use of advanced biotechnology techniques to improve nutritional value, especially since cereal crops—the most important source of carbohydrates that provide calories for those unable to afford diverse food sources—are oftentimes lacking in other key nutrients.
However, building a case for the adoption of biofortified crops requires developers to step out of their labs and test fields and look at the crop from the perspective of the market. At the recently concluded Economics of Biotech Crops: a symposium to promote economic and financial literacy, scientists and economists came together to present their findings on the economic valuation of biofortified genetically modified (GM) crops, their potential impact on farmers, and policy recommendations for their adoption in the Philippines.
