Soil health to human and animal health through breeding biofortified cultivars and balanced nutrient management for nutrition revolution in India
2017
India has larger prevalence of
micronutrient malnutrition as 50% of
children and women are suffering from
one or more essential micronutrient
deficiency. There is an urgent need for the
country to address this issue of
malnutrition holistically through addressing
the issue of soil health to animal and
human health. Widespread multi-nutrient
deficiencies in soil are resulting in nutrient
deficient food leads to malnutrition.
Feeding the children with supplements to
address the issue is good to fix the issue
quickly. However, in long-term, to find a
sustainable solution, we need to adopt
holistic approach. Along with
demonstrated soil health management,
biofortification research at ICRISAT is
focused on improving grain Fe and Zn
density. Our approach is to provide a
“proof of concept” to address the issue of
malnutrition through soil health
management and biofortification of staple
food crops.
To make impact, soil health mapping,
balanced soil nutrient for increasing crop
yields and quality are proposed.
Government of India has taken up soil
health mapping and issuing soil health
cards to all the farmers. Further,
integration of biofortified cultivars of crops
like millets in the states and country
strategy, would help to achieve future
targets of biofortified cultivars to reach
one billion people by 2030. Market is a key
driver for long-term adoption of
biofortified cultivars by farmers and
consumers, and a recent initiative on
Smart-foods on millets and pulses by
ICRISAT is expected to enhance this uptake
process in collaboration with food
industries. Holistic approach starting with
identifying the soil nutrient deficiencies,
meeting the crop demands through
balanced soil nutrient management and
using biofortified cultivars, can have
increased micronutrient uptake capacity as
well as capacity to have nutrient dense
grains and fodder by increased nutrientuse
efficiency and would significantly
contribute to improved nutrition by
increasing the daily micronutrient intakes
as evidenced by bioavailability studies in
millets...
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