Biofortification: Definition, Procedure, Purpose

Around half of the world’s total population is facing the deficiency of proteins, micronutrients, vitamins, and other essential elements in their diet. This deficiency has numerous damaging effects on the population like reduced mental abilities, increased risks of diseases, reduced lifespan, etc. To counter this problem of deficiency of nutrients in developing countries, biofortification of staple food crops has emerged as a very effective solution, where a large section of the population cannot afford enough vegetables, fruits, legumes, fish, and other food products to meet their essential nutritional requirements. Let’s have a closer look at biofortification.

Keyterms: Biofortification, Proteins, Micronutrients, Vitamins, Biotechnology, Food crops, Nutrients, Vegetables, Fruits, Legumes, Fish, Genetic modification

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What Is Biofortification?

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The process of developing micronutrients or simply put, the practice of fortification wherein the nutritional quantity of food crops is enhanced through the use of the best conventional breeding or farming techniques or through genetic modification that uses modern biotechnology.

It is different from ordinary fortification and focuses on enhancing the nutrient profile of the food crops as they grow and mature rather than when they are being processed. Therefore, biofortification is the most practical and cost-effective way to improve public health as it reaches places where conventional fortification techniques cannot.

Some of the most well-known examples of biofortified crops are as follows:

• Increased zinc in beans, maize, rice, wheat, sweet potato, etc.
• Enhanced quantity of iron in rice, beans, cassava, legumes, sweet potato, etc.
• Carotenoid-biofortification i.e. increased pro-vitamin of sweet potato, cassava, maize, etc.
• Protein and amino acid biofortification of sorghum and cassava.

Biofortification is undertaken to achieve the improvements in the following:

1. Content and quality of protein
2. Content and quality of the oil
3. Content of vitamin
4. Content of micronutrient and minerals

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Process of Biofortification

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• Conventional: The conventional technique aids in identifying crops that have a higher concentration of preferred nutrients. Later, they are cross-bred with other characteristics from aimed areas like virus protection, high yielding, etc.
• Agronomic: in this process, the minerals are applied to the soil so as to transfer the requisite micronutrients into the plants.
• Biotechnology: This allows for the modification of genes of plants that are deficient in fundamental micronutrients.

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Methods of Biofortification

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Biofortification involves mainly two methods:

1. Selective breeding – Selective breeding is a conventional method that needs the crops, with a naturally occurring high nutritious value, to be crossbred with high-yielding varieties. The development of the hybrid varieties ought to be monitored by nutritionists in order to make sure whether the improved levels of nutrients can be used by the consumers, also to collect data on how these levels are affected by the storage, processing, and cooking of the food crop.
2. Genetic modification – this method requires altering the genetic makeup of a crop through the introduction of foreign genes from the wild crop of the same species or other species that code for the increased production of certain nutrients or disease resistance could make the host crop rich in nutrients and also increase its quality.

Alternately, diverse genes that code for different nutrients can also be stacked in a crop in order to make it rich in a variety of nutrients. One of the most famous examples is that of golden rice that has been enriched with beta-carotene, a precursor of Vitamin A.

For example, below is the biofortification of wheat, especially in the variant termed transgenic wheat (Triticum aestivum).

1. Bacterial PSY along with carotene desaturase genes has improved the pro-vitamin A in wheat.
2. The ferritin gene, found in soybean and wheat has led to the betterment of iron within wheat.
3. By expressing phytochrome genes, phytase activity has been stepped up to improve the bioavailability of iron. Also, phytic acid has been decreased by suppressing ABCC13 transporters in wheat.
4. Using the amaranthus albumin gene, protein contents, especially methionine, amino acids lysine, cysteine, and tyrosine contents, are enhanced too.
5. By venting the maize regulatory genes in the production of anthocyanin, wheat has been used to better antioxidant and other similar activities.
6. Lastly, by suppressing gene encoding SBEs, resistant amylose and less digestible starch have been boosted in wheat. It addresses the difficulties of overnutrition and obesity.

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What is the Purpose of Biofortification?

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Some of the key purposes of Biofortification are listed below for your reference,

• To solve the crisis of a lack of essential nutrients. The benefits of biofortification can easily reach people who do not have access to a diverse and nutrient-rich diet. Usually, they consume their staple food, from what they grow. Thus, they generally suffer from a lack of micronutrients.
• Biofortification is proven to solve the problem of lack of nutrition by combining increased micronutrients with the preferred agronomic. Therefore, they can outperform the variety that is produced by farmers organically. Consequently, consuming biofortified crops can ensure a more balanced diet in the long term.
• Biofortification, thus, has played a vital role in improving the diet and consequently the overall health of human beings.

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Things to Remember

Some of the key points to be remembered about Biofortification are listed below for your reference,

• Biofortification is crucial to improve the overall health of human beings by providing for the lack of micronutrients.
• Biofortification is proven to solve the problem of lack of nutrition by combining increased micronutrients with the preferred agronomic.
• Biofortification refers to the breeding of crops with higher levels of vitamins and minerals, or higher protein and healthier fats to improve public health.
• The Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi has also released several vegetable crops that are rich in vitamins and minerals, e.g., vitamin A enriched carrots, spinach, pumpkin; vitamin C enriched bitter gourd, mustard, bathua, tomato; iron and calcium-enriched bathua and spinach; and protein-enriched beans – lablab, broad, French and garden peas.