Crop Nutrition: Principles and Practices

The goal of the proposed program is to improve the health of poor people by breeding staple food crops that are rich in micronutrients, a process referred to here as biofortification. The Biofortification Challenge Program seeks to bring the full potential of agricultural and nutrition science to bear on the persistent problem of micronutrients malnutrition. Micronutrient malnutrition, primarily the result of diets poor in bioavailable vitamins and minerals, affects more than half of the worlds population especially women and preschool children. The costs of these deficiencies in terms of live lost forgone economic growth and poor quality of life are staggering.