UPLBRDE News Service

A leading Filipino nutritionist is supporting crop biofortification to achieve six of the country's eight objectives under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Dr. Corazon Barba of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) said the country's drive to improve nutrition, reduce poverty and hunger rates and raise rural incomes can be met through biofortification.

Micronutrients are essential to growth, health and wellness of all, particularly children and women, she said. Deficiency in micronutrients is a global problem, contributing to world's widespread malnutrition and high rate of children and women's mortality.

Crop biofortification is a strategy employed by agricultural research institutions to used genetic modification (GM) of crops to enhance levels of essential micronutrient.

The potentials and safety issues of biofortified crops to address micronutrient deficiencies was the focus of a symposium held last Jan. 18, 2010 at the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Studies and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) in Los Baños, Laguna.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization-World Food Programme (WHO-WFP) estimate that more than two billion people in the world are deficient in Vitamin A, iodine, iron or zinc, with most of them lacking more than one of these micronutrients.

"Six out of the eight objectives in the MDGs are related to micronutrient deficiency. And, together with conventional interventions, such as supplementation and industrial fortification, biofortification of crops with essential micronutrients could greatly contribute in the attainment of these MDGs," Barba said.

Dr. Randy Hautea of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) also trusts that biofortification can help in alleviating global malnutrition.

During the symposium, Dr. Gerard Barry, Golden Rice Network Coordinator of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), revealed the current biofortification initiatives in rice for micronutrients Vitamin A, iron, and zinc.