PJB-2019-499
Biofortification of Staple Food Crops; As a need of New Era
Ayesha Naseem
Abstract
More than one billion people of the world has no diverse access to the nutrient enriched food and the available staple food crops are very poor in combating the nutrient deficiencies among them. So, Biofortification is a feasible, upcoming, cost effective and sustainable way of providing the essential nutrients to the poor people of the developing world by fortifying the staple food crops. In this review, different approaches of biofortification are discussed just to improve the already growing crops with the essential nutrients like iron, zinc , and vitamin A . These are improved the health status because micronutrient deficiencies causes severe health issues like cognitive impairment, growth failure, weak eye sight, weakened immune system and ultimately in result reduce productivity in humans. Biofortification approaches like transgenic, agronomic and breeding are used to improve the nutrients in staple crops. For example Vitamin A in rice, Zinc in wheat, Iron in wheat and maize. Now more than 20 billion people of the developing world are using biofortified crops and improved their health status. Success stories of biofortification include the improving of wheat with lysine using transgenic approach, Provitamin A improved rice and tryptophan enriched maize. Biofortificaion is the most effective strategy to improve the living status and successful too in improving them but conventional breeding is still acceptable and mostly preferred while emphasis is being lead on transgenic approach and its acceptability and adoptability among the farmers. Besides all the the challenges, biofortification still has bright future and the potential to feed the world with essential micronutrient enriched food.
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