Biofortification: The answer to boosting academic performance in India?

02 Aug 2018 --- The consumption of iron-biofortified pearl millet can significantly improve cognitive abilities in Indian adolescents, a study published in the Journal of Nutrition has found. Biofortification uses conventional crop breeding to increase micronutrient levels, to help address preventable deficiencies of key vitamins and minerals. The researchers note that the study findings indicate the potential long-term effects of boosting Indian adolescents’ cognition, potentially increasing social mobility through improved academic and professional performance.

Iron deficiency remains the most prevalent micronutrient deficiency globally, with nearly half of all Indian women and children under five being anemic. However few studies have examined how iron status relates to cognition in adolescents. This landmark study marks the second to link iron biofortification with functional cognitive improvements. 

“This was a proof of concept study (an efficacy trial, with tightly-controlled conditions and pearl millet provided freely at a single school), not an effectiveness trial which mimics what would happen in the real world. In terms of real-life implications, the results suggest that if iron-deficient populations consume iron-rich pearl millet in sufficient quantities, we could see some improvements in cognitive function,” Samuel Scott, Associate Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) tells NutritionInsight.

“That will benefit different people in different ways; in school-going adolescents, you could suggest that improved cognitive function would lead to better learning, ability to pay attention in class, faster processing of education materials, etc., and that these could lead to future benefits as they enter young adulthood for college and jobs,” he adds.

The study
Conducted in Maharashtra, India, the study included 140 economically-disadvantaged 12-16 year olds, who consumed biofortified iron pearl millet twice daily in the form of bhakri (a local flatbread) or shev (a savory snack) for six months. The effects were compared to a group eating conventional pearl millet. Computer-based tasks were administered before and after the six months to measure cognitive skills.

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to iron deficiency because they experience periods of rapid growth, the onset of female menstruation and poor dietary habits. Addressing adolescent iron deficiency is crucial to ending the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition, especially as more than half of females in India marry by 18 years old, and often quickly after bear children. In the study, iron deficiency was two to three times more prevalent in females.

The findings demonstrate that daily iron intake from pearl millet was higher in the biofortified group and that its consumption results in a greater improvement in attention and memory. The biofortified group became faster on the most basic cognitive tasks, simple attention tasks and memory tasks.

Potential for change
“Biofortification holds immense promise in helping people and economies reach their full potential. This study reinforces that functional impacts are achievable with a food-based, low-dose intervention like biofortification, which does not require changes to eating behavior or access to dietary supplements or commercially fortified foods,” Erick Boy, Head of Nutrition at Harvest Plus, which manufactures the biofortified product, tells NutritionInsight.

According to Harvest Plus, over two billion people suffer from “hidden hunger.” Meaning, they do not get enough micronutrients, such as vitamin A, zinc and iron, from the foods they eat to lead healthy, productive lives. Although the body only requires micronutrients in minimal amounts, they are essential to good health and preventing illness. Typical diets in developing countries can consist of significantly number of staple foods but very few micronutrient-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables and animal products.

Therefore, a vital component of the potential of biofortified iron pearl millet is that it does not cost more than the ordinary strain as these varieties are considered public goods, so they go onto the commercial market at a comparative price, Boy explains, thereby, increasing access to lower-income groups.

The potential for reducing global malnutrition, and in turn, enhancing the chance to escape the poverty cycle could lie in biofortification. However, the interventions require a solidly multi-sectoral approach, as Scott explains, “One of the important and challenging areas is farmer adoption of biofortified crops. And then to really have population-level effects and scale up, at least in India, I think social safety nets that are already in place to deliver food and have high coverage need to be leveraged.”

Boy adds that biofortification should be a core activity of all agricultural research centers, in order to work toward the mainstreaming of biofortification.

By Laxmi Haigh