PM to dedicate to the Nation 17 recently developed biofortified varieties of 8 crops.
These varieties, along with other food ingredients, will transform the normal Indian thali into nutri-thali.
These crops will have up to 3.0-fold increase in nutritional value.
Bio fortification is the process of increasing nutritional value of food crops by increasing the density of vitamins and minerals in a crop through either conventional plant breeding; agronomic practices or biotechnology.
Vitamins and minerals that can be increased through bio fortification include provitamin A Carotenoids, zinc and iron.
Conventional crop breeding techniques are used to identify varieties with particularly high concentration of desired nutrients.
These are cross-bred with varieties with other desirable traits from the target areas (such a virus resistance, drought tolerance, high yielding, taste) to develop biofortified varieties that have high levels of micronutrients (for example, vitamin A, iron or zinc), in addition to other traits desired by farmers and consumers.
Agronomic bio fortification : It entails application of minerals such as zinc or iron as foliar or soil applications, drawing on plant management, soil factors, and plant characteristics to get enhanced content of key micronutrients into the edible portion of the plant.
Bio fortification has the increased nutritional micronutrient content embedded in the crop being grown.
Food fortificationincreases the nutritional value of foods by adding trace amounts of micronutrients to foods during processing.
