Micronutrients play an important role in keeping the human body active and functional. Zinc deficiency is a major public health problem in low- and middle-income countries and is associated with higher rates of childhood morbidity and mortality.
Such deficiencies increase lifelong morbidity and mortality and can impair growth and cognitive development. In Bangladesh, where rice is a staple food, the risk of inadequate zinc intake is high due to the low zinc content of white polished rice.
Micronutrient deficiencies are especially common among children and women. It is more common in people living in rural areas in Bangladesh. Zinc alone increases the risk of diarrhea in young children by 33 percent. The prevalence of zinc deficiency and stunting in preschool-age children of poor people in Bangladesh is 45 percent and 28 percent, respectively.
Preschool-aged children of poor people are at high risk for zinc deficiency, as their zinc requirements increase with growth. Zinc is not stored in the body. Therefore, it is important to regularly consume foods rich in zinc. The people of Bangladesh consume almost 70 percent of their diet from rice.
With the development of technology, taking into account the consumer’s preference, rice is processed in Rice Mills using modern technology and the rice is made highly polished by removing the outer layer such as bran as well as some of the endosperm starch. As a result, highly polished rice removes almost all of its nutritional value, such as vitamins and minerals.
On the other hand, those living in rural areas, especially the poor, cannot regularly purchase fish, meat, milk, fruits and vegetables, which are other important sources of micronutrients.
Therefore, rural people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Zinc biofortification may be a sustainable approach to combat zinc deficiency in terms of household food and nutrition security.
The bioavailability of Biofortified Zinc Rice (BZR) is similar to rice fortified with zinc before consumption. Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) have developed BZR varieties containing 28 ppm zinc polished rice.
What is Biofortified Rice?
Biofortification of staple crops such as rice is designed as a sustainable, cost-effective, and food-based means to deliver target micronutrients to diverse diets and populations that do not have access to or cannot afford other available interventions such as fortified foods and supplementation. .
It is the process of increasing the nutrient density of rice crops through traditional plant breeding and/or improved agricultural practices and/or modern biotechnology, without compromising the characteristics preferred by consumers and, most importantly, farmers. The word “biofortification” means increasing the bioavailable micronutrient content of food crops through genetic selection through plant breeding. This is a hopeful thing…
1. Crop productivity (i.e. yield) must be maintained or increased to ensure farmer acceptance;
2. Improved micronutrient levels should have a significant impact on human health;
3. The improved micronutrient property should be relatively stable in various edaphic environments and climatic zones;
4. The bioavailability of micronutrients in enriched lines should be tested in humans to ensure that preparing and eating them conventionally in normal home environments improves the micronutrient status of humans; And
5. Consumer acceptance should be taste (taste and cooking quality should be acceptable to the household) to ensure maximum impact on nutritional health.
Why Biofortified Zinc Brass?
According to the USAID Nutrition database, we get approximately 129 kcal of energy, 78.09 grams of carbohydrates, 7.12 grams of protein, 1.30 grams of fiber, 0.28 grams of fat, 28 mg calcium, 25 mg magnesium from 100 grams of rice. , 1.09 mg zinc, 0.28 mg iron, 0.07 mg thiamine, 0.015 mg riboglavin and other essential nutrients.
Zinc acts as an antioxidant in the body to boost immunity and body growth. Since all people in Bangladesh consume rice regardless of financial resources, micronutrients added to rice grains seem to be an urgent and sustainable approach to deliver micronutrients to consumers at all levels, especially the poor.
The zinc requirement for adults and children is 08-12 mg/day and 03-05 mg/day respectively. So, it is possible to meet the body’s zinc needs to a large extent by eating Biofortified Zinc Rice (BZR). These varieties contain more zinc than other rice varieties; 100 g of rice contains 02.57 mg of zinc.
Effects of BZR on household food and nutrition security
According to the World Health Organization, zinc deficiency is the 5th leading cause of illness and disease in developing countries and the 11th leading factor in the world. Zinc deficiency causes diarrhea and respiratory diseases and leads to 400,000 deaths annually worldwide.
Zinc deficiency is also associated with poor growth, loss of appetite, skin lesions, impaired sense of taste, delayed wound healing, hypogonadism, delayed sexual maturation, and impaired immune response.
Bangladesh, where 44 percent of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are too short for their age, hosts the highest number of stunted adolescent girls in the world after Guatemala.
Zinc is not stored in the body. Therefore, it is important to regularly consume foods rich in zinc. Rice, a staple food, is the main source of protein and minerals in the diet of Bangladeshi people.
The people of Bangladesh consume almost 70 percent of their diet from rice. The mills use modern technology and remove the outer layer, the bran, and even some of the endosperm starch, making the rice extremely shiny. As a result, highly polished rice removes almost all of its nutritional value, such as vitamins and minerals.
On the other hand, the poor cannot afford fish, meat, milk or fruit; Vegetables are other important sources of micronutrients.
Poor people therefore suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, especially zinc. Improving nutrition can have a significant impact on physical and cognitive growth and productivity, as well as survival. Good nutrition, which includes the intake of adequate quality and quantity of food and the reduction of disease, is also a fundamental human right and an essential input to economic development. Zinc is essential for a strong and robust immune system, optimal blood sugar balance, healthy metabolism, protein synthesis, physical growth and development, wound healing, hormone health, better sleep, sleep enhancement and antioxidants.
International Agricultural Research, a “Global Public Good” in the form of the International Rice Research Institute, first implemented the ‘Green Revolution’ in the 1960s and successfully enabled increased grain production through the development of High Yielding Varieties (HYVs).
However, grains of HYVs contain fewer nutrients; In the case of rice, polishing further reduces the content of nutrients such as iron and zinc. Improving nutrition is also targeted by no less than 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations.
There have been some attempts in the past to fortify food by coating Bangladeshi rice grain with imported fortified rice grains and through extrusion technologies.
This approach has rare nutritional benefit, as such external supplements are susceptible to zinc loss during washing and removal of porridge before cooking. Under these circumstances, the valuable approach and readily available zinc nutritional strategy would be to incorporate zinc into the rice endosperm that we eat as cooked rice through a conventional cultivation process, i.e. biofortification.
In this case, there will be little chance of zinc loss during grinding and extraction of porridge, since zinc is embedded in the entire part of the endosperm. Thus, poor people, even if they do not have any additional sources of zinc, will have some access to zinc nutrition through their stable food, which is largely in line with the Bangladesh government’s strategy.
Approximately 70 percent of the human body’s zinc needs can be met from rice.
Strategic action for large production and consumption of BZR
Bangladesh loses more than $700 million in GDP every year due to mineral and vitamin deficiencies. Micronutrient malnutrition has long-term effects on health, learning ability and productivity, resulting in high social and public cost consequences.
The Ministry of Food has already included BZR procurement from five districts (Bhola, Barishal, Takurgaon, Gaibandha and Rangpur) from the boro season of fiscal 2021-22 and from 10 districts (previous five districts and Kurigram, Lalmonirhat) in fiscal 2022-23. , Sirajgonj, Cumilla and Sunamgonj) and 15 districts (previous 10 districts and Meherpur, Cox’s Bazar, Patuakhali, Sariatpur and Chandpur) for the financial year 2023-24.
To reduce the rural poor people’s hidden hunger for zinc micronutrients, the government needs to play a leading coordination role through the following strategies:-
1. Conduct appropriate research on the impact of Biofortified Zinc Rice (BZR) on the nutritional security of rural poor people,
2. To raise awareness about the benefits of BZR consumption for the poor in rural areas through the media and relevant organizations,
3. Expanding seed production and distribution to farmers,
4. DAE should take appropriate initiative to disseminate these BZR varieties to grassroots rural farmers,
5. MoFood uses BZR in school feeding programme, VGD etc. It should get more agenda to present to different community/group/social safety net programs such as.
6. Increase demand and market share of zinc brass at division/region level.
Zinc deficiency is high among low-income people who cannot afford animal-source protein.
Again, marine fish can be a good resource, but poor people cannot afford to access it. The advantages of these varieties are that they are inbred varieties, farmers can produce seeds for their own use, unlike other existing traditional and modern varieties, seeds developed through breeding, and they are not GMOs, which people have concerns about.
Zinc-enriched biofortified rice can cover more areas in rural areas and enable more people to access zinc nutrition with knowledge and a positive attitude.
The writer is Bangabandhu PhD Fellow and Additional Deputy Director, Department of Agricultural Extension.