Is there silver bullet crop with cheap, sustainable production that can eliminate malnutrition and is accessible by a large number of people in the Globe?  Perhaps there is: fortified rice, according to an article written by a spokes-person for Asia’s UN World Food Programme last month.

Fortification is a post-agricultural process, which requires technical knowhow and expertise.  It is generally applied at the processing stage and therefore there is the danger that the discussion around rice fortification may exclude the voice of farmers and market consumers remaining largely in the orbit of governments, corporations and large scale production schemes.

Clearly, there are many potential benefits a fortification of rice can bring about in terms of improving malnutrition. Rice makes up about 20 percent of all the calories consumed worldwide. It is eaten regularly by two thirds of the global population. Despite its widespread use and popularity rice lacks the necessary set of micronutrients young children need especially in their early years of life.  This has led to what is known as ‘Hidden Hunger’.

Micronutrient deficiency leads to an increased risk of respiratory infection and diarrhoea, the two main killers of children in the first couple of years.  It causes stunted growth where children do not grow as tall and strong and physically healthy as they should and every year more than 13 million babies are born with mental impairment in Asia; 500,000 children under-five die from Vitamin A deficiency and anaemia affects 115 million schoolchildren and 200 million women.

Fortified rice has been proposed as a possible solution - rice that can provide a steady supply of all the required micronutrients, even after washing and cooking to entire populations without any need for a change in food habits or dietary behaviour. The fortification process doesn’t cost more than five percent above what it takes to raise normal rice to market.

However, there are other environmental, health and humanitarian issues attached to serial fortification that need serious concerns equally important to the elimination of malnutrition. In the largest rice producing countries rice production and milling remains largely among farmers in small rural mills – where classic fortification technology is difficult to apply. For penetration of fortified rice in rural areas where rice is produced and milled locally on a small scale, a range of non-classic strategies need to be explored. Unlike Maize and wheat, rice fortification has been technically challenging for many years and has only become fully developed in recent years. 

The process of fortification has some other concerns that need cautious insight. Some fortification techniques– such as bio-fortification apply genetic modification and some argue that this could have serious environmental and public health impacts. The World Food Programme has made it a priority to conduct trial runs in its existing programmes to demonstrate its feasibility and utility. Pilot projects are underway in both Cambodia and Bangladesh, with the support of government counterparts, NGO development partners and the private sector.

The potential utility of fortified rice for combating ‘hidden hunger’ and malnutrition in some of the poorest areas of the wold cannot be dismissed. But at the same time it is important that the rural, small scale producers are involved in the discussion and the development process of the techniques in order for the rice not to have an adverse impact on local markets in the long run. Too often famers have been marginalised from technocratic discussions of food and nutrition. This is neither acceptable nor beneficial for nurturing healthy and sustainable local food systems for generations to come.

Fortified rice is no ‘silver bullet’ to malnutrition. There is a need for a comprehensive approach that takes into account the environmental and social sustainability of any discussions around the fortification of food.

 (article)http://www.fnbnews.com/article/detnews.asp?articleid=33487§ionid=1

http://riforg.gainhealth.org/rice-fortification/rice-key-facts-and-figures

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