Biofortification

Biofortification is the practice of breeding crop varieties specifically to contain higher levels of vitamins, minerals and fats — in other words, deliberately raising a crop's nutritive value, not just its yield. It can be achieved through two broad routes: conventional selective breeding (choosing and crossing plants that already show a nutritionally superior trait) and rDNA (genetic engineering) technology, which can introduce a nutritional trait more directly. It can also be supplemented, though not replaced, by simply adding nutrients from outside — but biofortification's real advantage is that the improved nutrient content is built into the crop itself, as it grows, which is a more sustainable long-term answer to the widespread problem of malnutrition than external supplementation alone.

Breeding programmes aimed at biofortification typically target a defined set of objectives: protein content and quality, oil content and quality, vitamin content, and micronutrient content and quality. …