Plant breeding: a long-term strategy for the control of zinc deficiency in vulnerable populations

Marie Ruel () and Howarth Bouis

No 30, FCND discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: Because trace minerals are important not only for human nutrition, but for plant nutrition as well, plant breeding holds great promise for making a significant low-cost and sustainable contribution to reducing micronutrient deficiencies in humans, and may have important spinoff effects for increasing farm productivity in developing countries in an environmentally beneficial way. This paper describes ongoing plant breeding research that could increase the intake of bioavailable zinc from food staple crops among vulnerable populations in developing countries. The three most promising plant breeding strategies to achieve this goal are (1) increasing the concentration of zinc in the plant, (2) reducing the amount of phytic acid (a strong inhibitor of zinc absorption), and (3) raising the levels of sulfur-containing amino acids (which are thought to promote zinc absorption). The agronomic advantages and disadvantages as well as the potential benefits and limitations of each approach for human nutrition are described. Research is currently underway to identify the optimal combination of these approaches that will maximize impact on human zinc nutrition.

Keywords: human nutrition; mineral nutrients; plant breeding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161171

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:fcnddp:30

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in FCND discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().