Professor Potrykus was the principal investigator for the two separate research teams conducting the vitamin A and iron research. The Rockefeller Foundation supported Professor Potrykus's vitamin A research as did FAIR, the European Commission's agricultural research program. IDA, the most common nutritional disorder in the world, impairs immunity and reduces the physical and mental capacities of people of all ages. In infants and young children, even mild anemia can impair intellectual development. Anemia in pregnancy is an important cause of maternal mortality, increasing the risk of hemorrhage and sepsis during childbirth.
Infants born to anemic mothers often suffer from low birth weight and anemia themselves.
Each year more than one million VAD-associated childhood deaths occur. And, according to the World Health Organization, as many as 230 million children are at risk of clinical or subclinical VAD, a condition that is largely preventable. VAD makes children especially vulnerable to infection and worsens the course of many infections. VAD is also the single most important cause of blindness among children in developing countries. Rice plants do produce carotenoid compounds that are converted to vitamin A, but only in the green parts of the plant and not in the component of rice grain consumed by humans.