by Micronutrients play a major role in keeping the human body active and functional. Zinc deficiency is a major public health concern in low- and middle-income countries and is associated with higher morbidity and mortality in children.
Such deficits increase rates of morbidity and mortality over the life course and can affect growth and cognitive development. In Bangladesh, where rice is the main staple food, the risk of inadequate zinc intake is high, due to the low zinc content of polished white rice.
Micronutrient deficiencies are common, especially among children and women. It is seen more in rural people in Bangladesh. Zinc alone increases the risk of Diarrhea in young children by 33 percent. The prevalence of zinc deficiency and stunting in poor preschool age children in Bangladesh is 45 percent and 28 percent, respectively.
Preschool-aged children of poor people are at high risk of zinc deficiency because their zinc needs are increasing with growth. Zinc is not stored in the body. Therefore, it is important to eat zinc-rich food regularly. The people of Bangladesh consume almost 70 percent of their diet as rice.
With the development of technology and considering the choice of consumers, rice is being processed in the Rice Mills using modern technology and making the rice highly glazed by removing the outer layer ie bran even part of the endosperm starch. As a result, highly polished rice removes almost all nutritional value such as vitamins and minerals.
On the other hand, people in the countryside, especially poor people, cannot afford to regularly buy fish, meat, milk, fruit and vegetables which are the other major sources of micronutrients.
Thus people in the countryside suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Zinc biofortification could be a sustainable approach to combat zinc deficiency for food security and family nutrition.
The bioavailability of Biofortified Zinc Rice (BZR) is similar to zinc-fortified rice before consumption. Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) developed BZR varieties with 28 ppm zinc polished rice.
What is Bio-fortified Rice?
Biofortification of staple crops such as rice has been proposed as a sustainable, cost-effective and food-based means of delivering target micronutrients to populations that do not have access to or cannot afford diverse diets and other existing interventions such as fortified foods and supplements. .
It is the process by which the nutrient density of rice crops is increased through conventional plant breeding, and/or improved agronomic practices and/or modern biotechnology without sacrificing and characteristic that is preferred by consumers or more importantly by farmers. The word “biofortification” refers to the improvement of the micronutrient content available in food crops through genetic selection through plant breeding. It’s a bet-
1. Crop productivity (ie, yield) must be maintained or increased to ensure farmer acceptance;
2. The improved micronutrient level must have a significant impact on human health;
3. The improved micronutrient trait must be relatively stable across different edemic environments and climate zones;
4. The bioavailability of micronutrients in enriched lines must be tested in humans to ensure that they improve the micronutrient status of those who prepare and consume them in traditional ways within normal home environments; and
5. Consumer acceptance must be palatable (taste and cooking quality must be acceptable to family members) to ensure maximum impact on nutritional health.
Why Bio-fortified Zinc Rice?
According to the USAID Nutrition database, per 100 grams of rice, we get about 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 of calcium, 25 mg of magnesium. , 1.09 mg of zinc, 0.28 mg of iron, 0.07 mg of thiamine, 0.015 mg of riboglavin and other essential nutrients.
Zinc acts as an antioxidant in the body to increase the body’s immunity and growth. Since everyone in Bangladesh, regardless of financial resources, eats rice, micronutrients incorporated in rice grain seem to be an immediate and sustainable approach to provide micronutrients to consumers at all levels, especially the poor people.
The zinc requirement for adults and children is 08-12 mg per day and 03-05 mg / day respectively. So the body’s zinc needs can be met to a great extent by eating Bio-fortified Zinc Rice (BZR). These types contain more zinc than other types of rice, with 02.57 mg zinc/100 g of rice.
Effects of BZR on household food security and nutrition
According to the World Health Organization, zinc deficiency is the 5th most important factor for illness and disease in developing countries and 11th worldwide. Zinc deficiency causes diarrhea and respiratory diseases, leading to 400,000 deaths worldwide each year.
Zinc deficiency is also associated with stunted growth, loss of appetite, skin lesions, impaired taste acuity, delayed wound healing, hypogonadism, delayed sexual maturation and impaired immune response.
With 44 percent of girls, between 15 and 19 years of age too short for their age, Bangladesh is home to the largest number of adolescent stunted girls in the world after Guatemala.
Zinc is not stored in the body. Therefore, it is important to eat zinc-rich food regularly. Rice is the staple food and the main source of protein and minerals in the diet of the people of Bangladesh.
The people of Bangladesh consume almost 70 percent of their diet as rice. Mills use modern technology and make the rice highly glazed by removing the outer layer ie bran even part of the endosperm starch. As a result, highly polished rice removes almost all nutritional value such as vitamins and minerals.
On the other hand, poor people cannot afford to buy fish, meat, milk, fruit; vegetables are the other major sources of micronutrients.
So poor people suffer from micronutrient, especially zinc deficiencies. Nutritional improvement can have a significant impact on survival as well as physical and cognitive growth and productivity. Good nutrition, which includes adequate quality and quantity of food intake and reduction of illness, is also a basic human right and is an essential input for 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, improving sleep and antioxidants.
As “Global Public Appreciation” International Agricultural Research in the form of the International Rice Research Institute first implemented the ‘Green Revolution’ in the 1960s, achieving improved grain production through the development of High Yielding Varieties (HYVs). .
However HYVs grains contain smaller amounts of nutrients; in the case of rice, polishing further reduces the nutrient content, namely, iron and zinc. No less than 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations also focus on improving nutrition.
Several initiatives have been taken in the past for food fortification through coating and extrusion technologies for Bangladeshi rice grain with imported fortified rice kernel.
This approach is rarely beneficial from a nutritional point of view because such external supplementation is at risk of losing zinc during washing prior to cooking and removal of grits. Under the circumstances, the worthwhile approach and readily available zinc nutrition strategy is to incorporate zinc into rice endosperm, the material we eat as cooked rice, through a traditional breeding process ie bio-fortification.
In that case, there will be little chance of zinc loss during milling and gruel extraction since zinc is embedded in the entire endosperm. Poor people will therefore have some access to zinc nutrition through their stable food, which is very much in line with the Bangladesh government’s strategy, even if they have no source of zinc supplementation.
About 70 percent of the zinc requirement in the human body can be met through rice.
Strategic action on the production and consumption of BZR
Every year, Bangladesh loses over $700 million in GDP due to mineral and vitamin deficiencies. Micronutrient malnutrition has far-reaching effects on health, learning ability and productivity, resulting in high social and public cost consequences.
The Food Ministry has already included BZR supply from boro season 2021-22 fiscal year from five districts (Bhola, Barishal, Takurgaon, Gaibandha and Rangpur), 2022-23 fiscal year from 10 districts (previous five districts and Kurigram, Lalmonirhat , Sirajgonj, Cumilla and Sunamgonj) and fiscal year 2023-24 from 15 districts (previously 10 districts and Meherpur, Cox’s Bazar, Patuakhali, Sariatpur and Chandpur).
To reduce the hidden hunger for zinc micronutrient nutrition for the rural poor, the government must play a leading and coordinated role through the following strategies:-
1. Carry out appropriate research on the impact of Bio-fortified Zinc Rice (BZR) on the nutritional security of the rural poor,
2. To create awareness about the benefits of BZR consumption by the rural poor through publicity in the media and in relevant organisations,
3. Mainstreaming seed production and delivery to farmers,
4. DAE should take appropriate initiative to extend these types of BZR to rural farmers at the community level, ie
5. MoFood should adopt more work programs to deliver the BZR to the various programs of the society/group/social safety net such as the school feeding program, VGD etc.
6. To increase demand and market share of zinc rice at the division/district level.
Zinc deficiency is high among low-income people, who cannot afford animal protein.
Again marine fish could be a good source, but poor people cannot afford to access that. The advantages of these varieties are that they are breedable varieties and farmers can produce seeds for their own use like other traditional and modern varieties developed through the breeding process and are non-GMO of concern certain people on them.
Bio-fortified zinc-enriched rice could cover more and more areas of people in rural areas to access zinc nutrition with knowledge and positive attitude.
The writer is a Bangabandhu PhD Fellow and Additional Deputy Director at the Department of Agricultural Extension.
