Current Status and Potential of Biofortification to Enhance Crop Nutritional Quality: An Overview

Around 2 billion people are suffering from chronic malnutrition or “hidden hunger”, which is the result of many diseases and disorders, including cognitive degeneration, stunting growth, and mortality. Thus, biofortification of staple food crops enriched with micronutrients is a more sustainable opt...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2022-03, Vol.14 (6), p.3301
Main Authors: Sheoran, Seema, Kumar, Sandeep, Ramtekey, Vinita, Kar, Priyajoy, Meena, Ram Swaroop, Jangir, Chetan Kumar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural economics
Agricultural production
Climate change
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Crops
Cultivars
Degeneration
Developing countries
Diet
Dietary supplements
Food security
Food supply
Genetic engineering
Genetically altered foods
Genetically modified organisms
Germplasm
Health aspects
Health care
Hunger
Iodine
LDCs
Malnutrition
Medical care, Cost of
Micronutrients
Nutrition research
Nutritional status
Pandemics
Plant breeding
Population
Population genetics
Public domain
Public health
Supply chains
Sustainability
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Summary:Around 2 billion people are suffering from chronic malnutrition or “hidden hunger”, which is the result of many diseases and disorders, including cognitive degeneration, stunting growth, and mortality. Thus, biofortification of staple food crops enriched with micronutrients is a more sustainable option for providing nutritional supplements and managing malnutrition in a society. Since 2001, when the concept of biofortification came to light, different research activities have been carried out, like the development of target populations, breeding or genetic engineering, and the release of biofortified cultivars, in addition to conducting nutritional efficacy trials and delivery plan development. Although, being a cost-effective intervention, it still faces many challenges, like easy accessibility of biofortified cultivars, stakeholders’ acceptance, and the availability of biofortified germplasm in the public domain, which varies from region to region. Hence, this review is focused on the recent potential, efforts made to crop biofortification, impacts analysis on human health, cost-effectiveness, and future perspectives to further strengthen biofortification programs. Through regular interventions of sustainable techniques and methodologies, biofortification holds huge potential to solve the malnutrition problem through regular interventions of nutrient-enriched staple food options for billions of people globally.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su14063301