Biofortification: FAO calls for policy measures and government intervention

19 Mar 2020 --- Biofortification can improve crops’ quality and deliver high yields and steady agronomic performance. Consequently, it provides the key to tackling malnutrition and resolving global nutrient deficiencies at significant scale and should not be regarded as “alternative” to nutrition-enhancing agricultural and food-related interventions, as told to NutritionInsight by UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s Senior Nutrition Officer, Dr. Patrizia Fracassi. NutritionInsight explores FAO’s stance on the role governments and policy inclusion can play in sustainable and biofortified food production.

“The ultimate nutrition goal is that everyone has access to an affordable, diversified healthy diet. Biofortification is a cost-effective, food-based, nutrition-sensitive agricultural approach for improving nutrition. It is one of a range of complementary strategies, including diversification of various plants and animals in the production system, dietary diversification, supplementation and commercial food fortification. Biofortification is part of the solution to tackling malnutrition and hidden hunger,” affirms Dr. Fracassi.

According to her, national governments can achieve sustainable mainstreaming of biofortification by taking both a bottom-up approach via reinforced nutrition education programs and a top-down path through policy making. In terms of proper education, the FAO encourages governments to include biofortified inputs and foods in their programs, such as school meals as well as government subsidies and procurements. 

 Biofortification is a cost-effective, food-based, nutrition-sensitive agricultural approach for improving nutrition.Furthermore, policy making includes integrating biofortification into existing agriculture, health and social safety net policies and programs, regulations and standards pertaining to seeds and foods, and varietal release protocols, Dr. Fracassi details.

“Governments can incentivize the private sector to increase uptake of biofortification in their product portfolios through tax breaks or subsidies for producing biofortified products and offering free or subsidized training on biofortified crops and foods,” she explains. Moreover, monitoring efforts and end-cycle evaluations can establish whether government programs deliver the intended outcomes and are contributing to the overall impact of reducing micronutrient deficiencies.

The food industry is not exempt from FAO’s vision of sustainable scaling up of biofortification. For example, efforts include increasing the availability and affordability of nutrient-dense foods, food fortification, safety and quality. Similarly, it can invest in agricultural research on crop varieties with high micronutrient content as well as in R&D to increase the availability and affordability of food-products from biofortified crops. These efforts combined can encourage consumer demand and consumption for nutrient-rich, biofortified foods.

Who’s the main target group?
Reliance on limited staples for their diets and limited access to a diversified, healthy diet has augmented the risk group for malnutrition. Dr. Fracassi identifies children up to six years old and non-pregnant, non-lactating women of reproductive age (WRA), between 15 and 49 years, as particularly susceptible.

By 2018, an estimated 38 million people worldwide benefited from the production and consumption of biofortified crops and foods. Farming households in low- or middle-income countries can be reached with biofortified crops through social, commercial or farmer-to-farmer delivery channels, Dr. Fracassi explains.

Biofortified examples include high-iron bean varieties in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which have helped prevent iron deficiency and improve cognitive performance in young women and adolescents. Orange flesh sweet potatoes have also improved vitamin A in eight African countries in the battle against child morbidity, she underscores.

“When combined with interventions that promote diet diversification and targeted supplementation to specific population groups, biofortified crops ultimately make for one component of a suite of complementary strategies to reduce micronutrient deficiencies,” Dr. Fracassi concludes.

By Anni Schleicher, with additional reporting from Kristiana Lalou