Zinc-fortified wheat to combat malnutrition around the world
It will boost essential mineral for millions of poor people with deficient diets
Scientists at a leading global grains research institute expect to sharply ramp up new wheat varieties enriched with zinc that can boost the essential mineral for millions of poor people with deficient diets, the institute’s head told Reuters.
Martin Kropff, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), said he expects the newly-developed high-zinc wheat to make up at least 80 per cent of varieties distributed worldwide over the next ten years, up from about nine per cent currently.
Boosting yields
The Mexico-based institute’s research focuses on boosting yields, and livelihoods, of the world’s poorest farmers while also addressing specific challenges posed by climate change, including higher temperatures, less rainfall and constantly mutating plant diseases. The improved varieties of so-called biofortified wheat are being rolled out with the help of seed company partners in countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico and Bolivia.
Kropff said China may also begin adopting the fortified wheat varieties this year. Over the next decade, he said he expects nearly all newly deployed wheat varieties to be nutritionally improved, noting that the high-zinc varieties were developed by traditional breeding techniques instead of research based on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
“This is something that is really starting in a big way this year,” said Kropff, who also pointed to CIMMYT-developed zinc-enhanced corn that was introduced in Colombia over the past two years.
The dramatic expansion of the new wheat varieties, which has not been previously reported, holds the promise of improving diets that lack essential minerals like zinc and iron, used to fight off viruses and move oxygen throughout the body.
Zinc deficiency, in particular, is one of the main causes of malnutrition globally and estimated to afflict more than 2 billion people. CIMMYT scientists, with a research budget last year of $120 million, have developed about 70 per cent of wheat varieties currently planted globally as well as about half of the world’s corn, or maize, varieties.