Biofortification: Lessons from the Past and Strategies for Future Food Security

Micronutrient delivery can be made more sustainable, affordable, and long lasting through the process of biofortification, which involves breeding nutrients into food crops. The purpose of the biofortification strategy is to introduce a nutrient-dense micronutrient trait into cultivars that already have other desirable agronomic and dietary features, such as high yield and disease resistance. Crop surpluses may find their way into retail stores, where they will likely reach first rural consumers and later urban consumers. Here, we review the experiences from the past and different strategies for future food security, such as maintaining the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of healthy soil and following proper cultivation practices, including tillage, water management, integrated and balanced nutritional management, the application of organic matter, the application of synthetic fertilizers, micronutrient and bioavailability applications, the application of microorganisms, crop rotations, intercropping, and proper pest management. This chapter also discusses how to build awareness, policy-supported research interventions, crop development, transgenic approaches, and low-cost, high-throughput methods. Although biofortification is not yet being fully scaled up in a single nation, a wealth of data and many experiences point to its potential usefulness. Biofortification will become a cost-effective more-nourishing investment thanks to policies that enable cross-sectoral implementation at all levels.