Biofortification - Nutrition for the World - National Press Club 2016
Channel: ACIAR Australia
Date: 25/08/2016

Interview with Dr Howarth Bouis + excerpts from panel discussion. 

A panel of scientists from Adelaide, Melbourne and Flinders Universities, and partner World Vision Australia shared the stage at the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia to discuss nutrition, agricultural research and the development impacts of biofortification.

Hosted by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), The Crawford Fund and the National Rural Press Club and lead by Dr Howarth Bouis, Director and Founder of HarvestPlus and winner of the 2016 World Food Prize, the panel presented perspectives on biofortification: the nutritional value of staple foods and their connection to “hidden hunger” in the developing world. 

Biofortification is the process by which the nutritional quality of food crops is improved through agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or modern biotechnology.
The advantages of biofortification are many. 
First, biofortification is built on what poor households grow and eat – staple foods. Second, the one-time investment to develop seeds that fortify themselves keep recurrent costs low and the germplasm – the living tissue from which plants can be grown – can be shared globally, making it highly cost-effective. Third, biofortification is sustainable. Long after people stop thinking about biofortification, farmers continue to grow and eat their biofortified crops – now thought of as just “crops.” Fourth, biofortification reaches the country’s most vulnerable people, living in remote rural areas with no access – or money – for commercially marketed fortified foods. And finally, biofortification produces higher yields in an environmentally friendly way.