Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Peer-reviewed

Agronomic Biofortification of Zinc in Rice for Diminishing Malnutrition in South Asia

Panneerselvam Peramaiyan, Peter Craufurd, Virender Kumar, Lavanya P. Seelan, Andrew J. McDonald, Balwinder-Singh, Avinash Kishore, Sudhanshu S. Singh

Sustainability · 2022

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Summary

Zinc (Zn) is increasingly recognized as an essential trace element in the human diet that mediates a plethora of health conditions, including immune responses to infectious diseases. Interestingly, the geographical distribution of human dietary Zn deficiency overlaps with soil Zn deficiency. In South Asia, Zn malnutrition is high due to excessive consumption of rice with low Zn content. Interventions such as dietary diversification, food fortification, supplementation, and biofortification are followed to address Zn malnutrition. Among these, Zn biofortification of rice is the most encouraging, cost-effective, and sustainable for South Asia. Biofortification through conventional breeding and transgenic approaches has been achieved in cereals; however, if the soil is deficient in Zn, then t

Subject
Micronutrient biofortification
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
System type
Arable cereals
DOI
10.3390/su14137747
Catalogue ID
SNmp4zkky9-4e1975
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