BIOFORTIFICATION: LEVERAGING AGRICULTURE TO REDUCE HIDDEN HUNGER 87


staple foods such as rice or maize for sustenance. Despite urbanization and income growth associated with globalization, diets of the rural poor will continue to be heavily based on staple foods like cereals and tuber crops in many regions (Msangi et al. 2010). Expected increases in food prices, exacerbated by climate change, are likely to increase this reliance on staple foods (see Box 2).


BOX 2 The Challenge of Rising Food Prices and Climate Change


Future population and income growth will result in increased demand for food that will outstrip productivity, resulting in higher food prices. Climate change, which adds stress to agricultural systems, has a multiplier effect resulting in even higher food prices. Rising food prices will negatively affect the nutrition of the poor who cope by protecting consumption of staple foods (whose cost has risen) to keep from going hungry. In doing so, they reduce consumption of more expensive nonstaple foods. However, nonstaple foods have higher micronutrient content, so further reducing the already low amounts of these foods that the poor consume will increase micronutrient malnutrition. For example, if poor people in developing countries faced a 50 percent increase in all food prices across the board, and no increase in income, iron intake would fall by 30 percent. In those societies where prefer- ence is given to males in the intrahousehold distribution of nonstaple foods, women and children are likely to be most negatively affected. Biofortification can help make up for the expected micronutrient shortfall, especially among poor consumers. Climate change may also have an impact on the nutritional quality of


the crop itself. While rising CO2 levels may accelerate plant growth initially, some studies suggests that the nutrient content of crops is likely to decline, especially as plants adapt to higher atmospheric CO2 levels. One review found a decline in micronutrient content. Overall, the evidence on effects of climate change on nutritional quality is mixed and limited. Further research is needed as there is variability in how plants will respond to the different effects of climate change. Biofortification could offer a solution in those instances where crop nutritional quality will decline.


Sources: Bouis, Eozenou, and Rahman 2011; DaMatta et al. 2010; Loladze 2002; and Nelson et al. 2010.


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