Scaling Up Delivery of Biofortified Staple Food Crops Globally: Paths to Nourishing Millions

Abstract

Background: Micronutrient deficiencies affect over one quarter of the world’s population. Biofortification is an evidence-based nutrition strategy that addresses some of the most common and preventable global micronutrient gaps and can help improve the health of millions of people. Since 2013, HarvestPlus and a consortium of collaborators have made impressive progress in the enrichment of staple crops with essential micronutrients through conventional plant breeding. Objective: To review and highlight lessons learned from multiple large-scale delivery strategies used by HarvestPlus to scale up biofortification across different country and crop contexts. Results: India has strong public and private sector pearl millet breeding programs and a robust commercial seed sector. To scale-up pearl millet, HarvestPlus established partnerships with public and private seed companies, which facilitated the rapid commercialization of products and engagement of farmers in delivery activities. In Nigeria, HarvestPlus stimulated the initial acceptance and popularization of vitamin A cassava using a host of creative approaches, including “crowding in” delivery partners, innovative promotional programs, and development of intermediate raw material for industry and novel food products. In Uganda, orange sweet potato (OSP) is a traditional subsistence crop. Due to this, and the lack of formal seed systems and markets, HarvestPlus established a network of partnerships with community-based nongovernmental organizations and vine multipliers to popularize and scale-up delivery of OSP. Conclusions: Impact of biofortification ultimately depends on the development of sustainable markets for biofortified seeds and products. Results illustrate the need for context-specific, innovative solutions to promote widespread adoption.

Natural Variation in Vitamin B1 and Vitamin B6 Contents in Rice Germplasm

“…Germplasm of certain crops has proven a useful source to biofortify maize, cassava, and sweet potato with provitamin A (ß-carotene; Bouis and Saltzman, 2017 ; Bechoff et al, 2018 ; Govender et al, 2019 ; Foley et al, 2021 ). Several crop species including cassava, potato, quinoa, rice, maize, wheat, and pulses have been studied for variation in B complex vitamins ( Villareal and Juliano, 1989 ; Sotelo et al, 1990 ; Kennedy and Burlingame, 2003 ; Goyer and Navarre, 2007 ; Dong et al, 2011 , 2014 ; Goyer and Haynes, 2011 ; Goyer and Sweek, 2011 ; Shewry et al, 2011 ; Robinson et al, 2015 ; Nowak et al, 2016 ; Singh et al, 2016 ; Mangel et al, 2017 ; Zarei et al, 2017 ; Bali et al, 2018 ; Freitag et al, 2018 ; Granda et al, 2018 ; Li et al, 2018 ; Guo et al, 2019 ; Riaz et al, 2019 ; Robinson et al, 2019 ; Jha et al, 2020 ).…”

Commercialising Public Agricultural Technologies and Goods: A framework to identify opportunities for interventions

“…As efforts are being made to make biofortified foods available and accessible to non-farming consumers, the overall impact and sustainability of embedding these crops and foods in food systems will ultimately depend on the development of sustainable commercial markets, through commercialisation (6). Commercialisation is the process of introducing a new product or technology into commerce or making it available in the market.…”

Developing strategies to commercialise biofortified crops and foods

“…However, the reach of biofortified foods among non-farmer consumers remains limited. Potential reasons for this include undeveloped or underdeveloped value chains for biofortified crops and food products coupled with a lack of awareness on their value proposition among value chain actors and consumers (6,7).…”

“…The impact and sustainability of biofortification will ultimately depend on the development of sustainable commercial markets for biofortified seeds, crops, and food products (6).…”