Biofortification: Better crops, better nutrition
28 June 2018 - FAO North America Liaison Office hosted a roundtable on biofortification in collaboration with Global Harvest Initiative (GHI), HarvestPlus and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN).
FAO North America Director Sharan opened with this quote from 2018 World Food Prize laureate Lawrence Haddad, which is a key takeaway message from this roundtable: the world needs to move from feeding to nourishing vulnerable people. Biofortification - the process of developing highly nutritious staple food crops - is a strong tool in the effort to address micronutrient malnutrition, which affects two billion people worldwide. Despite the evidence of its effectiveness, biofortification has not yet been fully mainstreamed. More governments need to come on board. “It’s imperative that we work together to promote biofortification,” said Sharan, who noted that FAO has been at the forefront, working with policymakers and other stakeholders, while taking countries’ individual contexts into account.
Moderator Bonnie McClafferty called on participants to work together to expand access to biofortified foods that have been “proven to be nutritionally efficacious.” Partnerships will be key to scaling up these nutritious crops. An enabling environment will require government stewardship as well as private sector investment. Climate change is reducing the nutritional quality of food; biofortification has the potential to address this challenge.
FAO Senior Nutrition and Food Systems Officer and Global Nutrition Report co-chair Dr. Jessica Fanzo, joining online from FAO HQ in Rome, underscored the adverse consequences of micronutrient deficiency, particularly the cognitive impairment caused by stunting. World Bank President Dr. Jim Kim has highlighted the importance of cognitive infrastructure in a global knowledge-based economy. Diet remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality today. The agriculture and nutrition communities have come together in recognition of this crisis, and biofortification is one of the key interventions to address it. Fanzo encouraged participants to read HarvestPlus founder Howdy Bouis’ 2017 paper in the journal Global Food Security to learn more about the policies needed to create an enabling environment for scaling up biofortification. While supplementation, fortification and dietary diversity are also valuable, biofortification has the potential to reach millions through the foods they eat daily. FAO’s role in promoting biofortification includes working with governments, some of whom are already rolling out biofortification programs, and with the Codex Alimentarius, the standard-setting body that is currently developing a formal definition of biofortification. FAO is also working with the World Health Organization on joint guidelines on biofortification, and on a standalone FAO paper that should come out later this year.
HarvestPlus founder and 2016 World Food Prize laureate Howarth “Howdy” Bouis gave an overview of biofortification’s evolution from a theory that was initially greeted with skepticism, to an interesting research project, to an evidence-based intervention that has now reached more than 50 million people around the world, thanks to the work of CGIAR centers, national agricultural research services, and hundreds of other partners. Early donors like USAID also paved the way for the successful global movement of today. More than 290 varieties of 12 staple food crops are in testing or have been released in 60 countries. Peer-reviewed published evidence has demonstrated that eating biofortified foods reverses anemia, reduces night blindness and diarrhea, and improves cognitive and physical performance. Farmers are adopting biofortified crops because of their nutritional value and also because some have beneficial agronomic traits, such as higher yield, than existing varieties. For example, almost 30% of Rwandan bean farmers had grown high-iron varieties within four years of introduction. FAO has been a valuable player, including its leadership of the Livelihoods and Food Security Program in Zimbabwe, which has catalyzed rapid uptake of vitamin A maize and high-iron beans. Much more remains to be done, however, for biofortification to reach the millions more who need it. CGIAR centers have agreed to mainstream nutritional traits. Governments, international financial institutions, the private sector, NGOs and civil society all have roles to play. “My vision is that in 25 years, children won’t know that maize was once white,” i.e., lacking in the beta carotene that gives biofortified maize its orange color. Bouis also noted that biofortification is not a silver bullet; access to a diverse, nourishing diet remains the ideal solution for micronutrient deficiency.
Margaret Zeigler, Executive Director of the Global Harvest Initiative, described GHI’s role in bringing together the private sector and other multi-sectoral stakeholders to harness science and innovation to improve the agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers worldwide. She attended the first global conference on biofortification in 2010 and welcomed the exciting progress since then. “We know this works; now how do we get consumers and food companies to accept it?” Productivity and nutrition must go hand-in-hand; farmers will not adopt these new crops unless they are as resistant to diseases, drought, and pests as existing varieties. Seed companies are working with stakeholders to increase their engagement on biofortification. Robust regulations will be needed to protect seed quality and private sector investment. HarvestPlus has provided strong leadership of the global biofortification movement, but “we need others to help as well.” National agricultural research systems (NARS) must mainstream nutrition in their crop breeding programs, just as the CGIAR is now committed to do. African Development Bank President and World Food Prize Laureate Dr. Akin Adesina, a champion of biofortification since his tenure as Nigeria’s Federal Minister of Agriculture, has called for incentives for local and regional food and seed companies to integrate biofortification in their portfolios.
USAID Bureau of Food Security Chief Scientist Dr. Rob Bertram emphasized that stunting is one of the Feed the Future initiative’s topline indicators. Maps depicting stunting and micronutrient deficiency overlap significantly – a marker for inadequate diets. Biofortification is a “pro-poor safety net” that is an important part of USAID’s broader food quality agenda, which also includes horticulture and small livestock. Biofortification is an “excellent point of entry” into the food system, both vertically and horizontally. Mainstreaming biofortification “remains more compelling than ever because we are not making as much progress as we should” in other related areas. Biofortification is important because of its affordability. He welcomed the CGIAR’s commitment to mainstreaming. Donors have a role to play, but sustainable integration of biofortification depends on developing country governments and other stakeholders. Drought-resistant crops like sorghum and millet will be increasingly important. Controversy around the GMO issue has delayed the release of vitamin A-rich Golden Rice for years, and has also affected the development of vitamin A bananas. CRISPR gene editing may be a game-changer because it could eliminate the need for transgenes to introduce a new nutrient into a plant.
Dr. Marc Albertsen of Corteva (the agro-science division of DuPont Pioneer), joined online from Johnston, Iowa. Corteva provides technical assistance and thought leadership to develop capacity, improve productivity, introduce new technologies, and strengthen potential markets. Dr. Albertsen has spent the past nine years of his 37-year career leading the biofortification portfolio. The company has worked with USAID, CGIAR, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project and other partners to create maize that resists lethal necrosis, biofortified sorghum, and other crops to benefit farmers in developing countries. In addition to enriching crops with vitamin A, iron and zinc, they are working to improve the bioavailability of iron and zinc by reducing the impact of phytates, which inhibit absorption of those minerals. Sorghum, consumed regularly by 300 million people in Africa, lacks a natural variation for these micronutrients, so Corteva has developed a transgenic variety that it will make available royalty-free for smallholder farmers in countries whose regulatory regimes permit GM agriculture. Corteva also wants to share know-how with regional seed companies in developing countries, which will play an important role in disseminating new varieties. Seed systems need to be strengthened for new varieties to reach more farmers. Ethiopia has made positive progress in this area in the past five years.
During the ensuing question and answer period, attendees discussed the importance of the Scaling Up Nutrition movement; opportunities to work more closely with FAO at country level; the need for more behavior change communication and public awareness campaigns; pull mechanisms that could incentivize greater participation by farmers and the private sector; increasing coordination with the health sector; and the role of U.S. land-grant universities in biofortification research. Vimlendra Sharan closed by thanking participants for their engagement and creative suggestions, which FAO will take into consideration.
This writeup was prepared by HarvestPlus. Read more about the rationale, concrete recommendations to maximize impact and the necessary enabling environment for Biofortification in FAO (2017) Nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems in practice - Options for intervention.
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