Biofortification: The Evidence

An overview prepared by Harvest Plus on the evidence related to biofortification (February 2018)

HarvestPlus leads a global effort to develop and scale up micronutrient-rich staple food crops. The process used is known as biofortification: a cost-effective, sustainable solution that uses conventional plant breeding to increase the density of vitamins and minerals in staple crops consumed widely as part of everyday diets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Micronutrients, although only required by the body in very small amounts, are essential to good health, cognition, and productivity.

Biofortification helps minimize the widespread gap between micronutrient requirements and intake by increasing the proportion of dietary vitamin A, iron, and zinc—three micronutrients of public health significance globally. Biofortified crops are particularly useful for delivering added nutrients to rural communities, where the majority of lower-income, small-holder farming families reside and where commercial fortification and/or supplementation is often inaccessible. Women and young children are the primary targets of biofortification because they have high nutrient needs that often go unmet; yet, since staple foods are consumed widely by all household members, biofortification can provide profound health benefits to the whole family.