[pronut-hiv] Scientists develop 'biocrops' to boost nutrition

["ProNut-HIV" <pronut-hiv@healthnet.org>]

Scientists develop 'biocrops' to boost nutrition 
The EastAFrican

By JOHN MBARIA 
Special Correspondent 

Scientists have developed a new technique that loads vital nutrients
and vitamins into ordinary food crops.  

If the technology become widely available in sub-Saharan Africa, many
of the diseases that are linked to poor diet will be drastically reduced
in the region. 

Termed "biofortification," the new technique promises to be a boon for
poor households in a region where ever-rising numbers of mouths to feed
are a headache not only to parents but also for national governments. 

Their main worry though is usually about the amount of food on the
table as well as where the next meal will come from.  

Few poor people worry too much about the nutritional content of these
meals.  

But agricultural researchers and nutritionists who support the new
technique say this ought to be one of Africa's key nutritional concerns.
 

Many diseases, they say, could be avoided if all Africans ate not
merely generous helpings of the available food, but diets of adequate
nutritional content.  

But this has not been happening because poverty has prevented many
people in the region from feeding well. 

Consequently, Africans, and particularly young children, fall ill more
often from diseases linked to poor diet. 

For instance, in much of rural Africa, the poor can only afford a diet
based on staple crops such as maize and beans, (githeri, as the meal is
known in central Kenya) or sweet potatoes and cassava. Nutritionists say
that although these and similar foods serve the purpose of filling empty
stomachs, they are generally low in micronutrients particularly iron,
zinc and Vitamin A. 

Scientists say that such poor diets cause blindness, impair mental
development particularly among women and children; cause general
illnesses, and even premature death. 

Today, close to 70 per cent of pre-school children in sub-Saharan
Africa are said to suffer iron deficiency, leading to a rising incidence
of anaemia.  

In addition, lack of foods with Vitamin A is the leading cause of
preventable blindness while foods deficient in zinc contribute to
stunted growth, increased rates and severity of infections, and
pregnancy and birth-related complications.  

The ideal solution to micronutrient deficiency is a balanced diet of
fruits, vegetables and meat. But this is not a choice for the very poor.


However, researchers working for an organisation named Harvestplus say
biofortification crop-breeding would ensure that Africa eats better
quality foods.  

They are arming ordinary foods as beans, maize and sweet potatoes with
such nutritionally-vital ingredients as zinc, iron and vitamins through
biofortification.  

And scientists are upbeat about the scientific procedure, terming it a
"revolutionary process" that holds great potential to enhance the health
of poor people in the region. 

Biofortification enables plants to take in more minerals and other
ingredients from the soil and load them into the seeds, thus fortifying
themselves, says Dr Howarth Bouis, director of HarvestPlus. "It is the
plants that are doing the work and not manufacturers."  

Harvestplus is an international research programme that seeks to reduce
malnutrition by applying agricultural technology to arm staple crops for
better nutrition. 

To popularise the technique, scientists, agricultural experts, policy
makers and health experts from the region met in Mombasa, Kenya, last
week for a workshop hosted by the Forum for Agricultural Research in
Africa and HarvestPlus.  

The participants, drawn from regional ministries of agriculture,
health, and finance, non-governmental organisations, national
agricultural research institutes, departments of health, UN agencies,
and international financial agencies, discussed the latest research on
biofortification and identified ways of developing biofortified crops in
Africa and how to make the technique part and parcel of national
agricultural and health policy agendas.  

"By targeting staple food crops grown and consumed by the rural poor,
biofortification can reach large numbers of people in a cost-effective
and sustainable manner, leading to a nutrition revolution in Africa,"
says Prof Ruth Oniang'o, Kenyan MP and lecturer in food science and
nutrition at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. 

Foods are complicated compounds and there are fears that loading them
with newer ingredients might affect the health of the consumers. But Dr
Bouis says that unlike nutrients taken from animal matter, human bodies
are able to regulate how much of plant nutrients they absorb.  

This means that one can eat as much minerals from such staples without
exposing themselves to the dangers of falling sick.