Biofortification: Plant Breeding to Solve World-wide Micronutrient Malnutrition-A Review

As per WHO reports, 3.1 million per school age children suffer eye damages due to Vit-A deficiency and another 227.5 million are sub-clinically affected. Over 3 billion people in the world suffer from iron deficiency. A significant portion of people in developing countries relies largely on one or more of the staple crops such as rice, maize, wheat, potato and cassava for their nutrition. These crops are the main subjects of biofortification projects. In staple grains such as rice, improvement of some complex traitssuch as vitamin A is not possible using conventional breeding strategies, as there are no natural rice varieties rich in this vitamin. In developing countries, where vitamin A deficiency prevails, grain from Golden Rice is expected to provide this important micronutrient sustainably through agriculture. Since its original production, the prototype Golden Rice has undergone intense research to increase the provitamin A content, to establish the scientific basis for its carotenoid complement, and to better comply with regulatory requirements.