HarvestPlus

MOTIVATION

Can one seed change the world? We think so—an improved single seed variety can mean the difference between sight and blindness for millions of malnourished children. Since 2004, HarvestPlus has been working to combat micronutrient malnutrition, also known as “hidden hunger,” which afflicts billions of people worldwide. This deficiency in essential minerals and vitamins can be devastating: in addition to causing blindness, it can stunt children’s physical and mental development, increase vulnerability to infectious diseases, and even lead to premature death.
Alongside 70 partner organizations in more than 40 countries, HarvestPlus has sought to reduce micronutrient malnutrition through biofortification: breeding staple crops to achieve a higher content of crucial micronutrients. HarvestPlus, generously supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UKAID, and USAID --along with other donors- targets crops widely consumed by the poor and malnourished in Africa and Asia to achieve a greater impact among the most afflicted populations. Specifically, HarvestPlus is biofortifying beans, pearl millet, cassava, maize, sweet potato, rice, and wheat with one of three nutrients—provitamin A, iron, or zinc—to help reduce micronutrient malnutrition in developing countries around the world.

OUTCOMES

HarvestPlus and partners have now reached 500,000 farmers with nutritious varieties of staple food crops that include the crops noted here. During the next five years, HarvestPlus plans to disseminate nutritious staple food crops to people in target countries including Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia. The goal is to reach 50 million farmers by 2018. Outcomes include:

• Sweet potato: Vitamin A orange sweet potato was first disseminated in Mozambique and Uganda with positive results. Adoption of the new variety increased by over 60 percent in both countries, while vitamin A intake for women and children doubled in Mozambique, nearly doubled for younger Ugandan children and women, and increased by two-thirds for older Ugandan children. The program is now being scaled up in many countries in Africa by the International Potato Center (CIP) and others in order to reach millions more people in the coming years. In Uganda alone, HarvestPlus has now reached over 145,000 farming households with orange sweet potato.
• Cassava: The Nigerian government released three vitamin A cassava varieties in 2011. National dissemination of the varieties was formally launched in July 2013 as part of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government of Nigeria. The goal is to reach more than 100,000 Nigerian farming households by 2014. HarvestPlus is also disseminating vitamin A cassava in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Maize: Three vitamin A maize varieties were released in Zambia and two were released in Nigeria during 2012. Research shows that the vitamin A in maize is highly bioavailable. A study also found that consumers accept the orange maize once they understand that the color is due to the presence of high levels of vitamin A, which is enormously beneficial for their children's health. The dissemination target is to have 265,000 farming households growing and consuming vitamin A maize in 2014 in Zambia alone.
• Beans: Iron beans have reached more than 270,000 farming households (or 15 percent of rural farmers) in Rwanda, where five varieties have been released, and 175,000 households in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where seven varieties have been released. In Rwanda, the World Food Programme is now including iron beans in its Purchase for Progress program. HarvestPlus has also introduced iron beans in Uganda.
• Pearl millet: An iron pearl millet variety was commercialized in India in 2012, thanks to a partnership with private-sector company Nirmal Seeds, and has reached over 25,000 farming households. A study published in 2013 in the Journal of Nutrition showed that iron pearl millet can provide young Indian children not only with their full daily iron needs but their full zinc requirement as well.
• Rice: HarvestPlus submitted five zinc rice varieties to the official registration trial in Bangladesh and submitted four zinc wheat varieties to the Participatory Variety Selection on-farm trials in India. The first zinc rice variety has now been released in Bangladesh and will be available to farmers in 2014.
• HarvestPlus has been instrumental in helping to establish nationally owned biofortification programs in Brazil, China, India, and Panama.