Biofortification—Present Scenario, Possibilities and Challenges: A Scientometric Approach

Abstract

Biofortification refers to the process by which food crops are improved by the application of biotechnology, conventional plant breeding, and agronomic practices to increase the bioavailability of their nutritious components to human consumers. The biofortification of staple crops is a long-term, sustainable solution to address nutritional inadequacies. Thus, it is a practical and cost-effective way to provide micronutrients to communities that have limited access to various meals and other micronutrient therapies. Existing therapies, such as supplementation and industrial food fortification, which are insufficient to eliminate micronutrient deficiencies on their own, are complemented by biofortification. However, biofortification offers two substantial competitive advantages: the capacity to reach underserved rural communities and long-term cost-effectiveness. Biofortified crops can also be used to target rural populations with limited access to various dietary options or other micronutrient therapies. Hence, an attempt is made herein to provide an overview of the biofortification literature by employing scientometric and network analysis tools to examine records extracted from the Scopus database that were published between 2010 and 2021. This study investigates the most influential authors and journals, top-contributing institutions and countries, variations across publication years, co-occurrence analysis of keywords, and bibliographic coupling of sources. The results obtained through this study describe the real impact of the research published to date and its usage.

Screening of Eight Biofortified Rice Varieties Based on Total Content of Zinc and Iron as Well as Its Uptake by Caco-2 Cells: An In Vitro Cellular Model

“…All these factors leads to a gap in the information related to the durability of the biofortified cultivars. 56 This gap can be filled by estimating the levels of biofortified micronutrients even after they are released. This will actually lead to the sustainable solution for the food productivity.…”

“…There should also be documentation that the biofortified variety is indeed higher than the average level of nonbiofortified lines of the targeted marketplace. All these factors leads to a gap in the information related to the durability of the biofortified cultivars . This gap can be filled by estimating the levels of biofortified micronutrients even after they are released.…”

Biofortification as a solution for addressing nutrient deficiencies and malnutrition

“…However, all of them have certain drawbacks, including toxicity, environmental risks from excessive use, difficulty in choosing acceptable germplasms for breeding and challenges associated with the introduction of transgenic crops due to public acceptance and safety concerns [ 56 ]. Therefore, using microorganisms for biofortification is more environmentally friendly than other methods to ensure sustainable agriculture [ 57 ]. Several microbiome species, like fungi, bacteria and cyanobacteria can be considered for effective plant growth by obtaining significantly higher levels of nutrient concentrations in crops through genetics-based biofortification that is genetic and agronomic-based.…”

“…This interaction helps iron in plants, effectively addressing iron deficits [ 67 ]. As suggested by various researchers [ 14 , 15 , 57 , 58 , 63 ] microorganisms have been used as a tool for biofortification to increase the Fe content in crops. Microorganisms capable of producing siderophores may have good potential for biofortification, as they provide additional access to Fe for plants.…”

Bioaccumulation Capacity of Onion (Allium cepa L.) Tested with Heavy Metals in Biofortification

“…Therefore, the need to address malnutrition with improved food quality has arisen. In the case of non-processed food, such as vegetables, the only option to enhance the nutrient content of products is in preharvest, using improved genotypes or adopting specific agronomical techniques [ 41 , 42 , 43 ]. Biofortification is the process of increasing the concentrations and bioavailability of essential nutrients in a staple crop through traditional plant breeding, agronomic practices and/or genetic engineering; it is a potential approach to combat micronutrient deficiencies at the population level [ 44 ].…”