New Partnership to Improve Nutrition

HarvestPlus and India agree to collaborate on biofortifying crops to address persistent micronutrient deficiency in young children

Despite India’s economic progress in recent years, millions of Indians still suffer the insidious affects of micronutrient malnutrition. Children are especially vulnerable, and recent World Bank estimates paint a grim picture, finding more than half of preschool children to suffer subclinical vitamin A deficiency and more than three-quarters iron-deficiency anemia.

Earlier this year, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lamented the slow progress in improving the nutritional status of children under 6 and said that action was urgently needed. In March, the government of India and HarvestPlus, a Challenge Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on developing and disseminating crop varieties biofortified to grow with enhanced micronutrient content and so reduce micronutrient malnutrition in India .

India had already launched its own initiative called the Indian Biofortification Program (IBP). As HarvestPlus developed and advanced the biofortification strategy upon which the IBP is based, it seemed natural that the two programs would eventually work closely together. The IBP has chosen to focus on three staple crops: rice, wheat and maize. The memorandum details collaboration between HarvestPlus and the IBP on several topics including (1) developing and sharing common methodologies and protocols for measuring mineral and vitamin density in crop and food samples; (2) exchanging samples, materials and other research data; and (3) undertaking other joint activities to share knowledge.

Through these efforts, HarvestPlus scientists will contribute to reducing the micronutrient malnutrition that continues to plague India’s rural poor.

HarvestPlus is coordinated by the CGIAR-supported International Center for Tropical Agriculture and International Food Policy Research Institute. For more information, please visit www.HarvestPlus.org .