Biofortification (also known as nutrient enrichment) of staple crops, is a cost-effective and sustainable agricultural technology that enhances the quantity, bioavailability and bioaccessibility of micronutrients, with the aim of reducing micronutrient deficiencies. From 2019-2022, GAIN and HarvestPlus coordinated the Commercialisation of Biofortified Crops (CBC) Programme, which sought to scale up the production and consumption of biofortified foods (i.e., wheat, maize, cassava, rice, pearl millet, and beans) through commercial pathways in six countries in Africa and Asia. The programme used a variety of strategic scaling pathways to ensure commercialisation (e.g., increased production and availability of surplus for sale in markets), where aggregation was a key step. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) document the types of aggregation models employed by the CBC programme and their challenges, and (2) make recommendations for improving biofortified crop value chains to better achieve commercialisation. The insights in this paper are based on a desk review of CBC programme documents and semi-structured interviews with programme implementers.
To ensure the success of LSFF, governments can establish and strengthen national mandatory fortification standards as well as regulatory frameworks that ensure access to high-quality fortified foods across the entire population. Strong regulations also help ensure a level playing field for fortified food producers where all are held to the same standard.
To scale up the production and consumption of biofortified foods through commercialisation, GAIN and
HarvestPlus partnered in 2019 to implement the Commercialisation of Biofortified Crops (CBC)
Programme
EatSafe: Evidence and Action Towards Safe, Nutritious Food (EatSafe) is a USAID Feed
the Future programme that works in traditional markets in Nigeria and Ethiopia to
improve food safety.
In 2023, Criterion Institute and UNICEF partnered to develop child lens investing: an emerging field that intentionally integrates considerations of child rights and wellbeing into investment processes. Understanding is growing of the opportunity that exists for increasing economic, social, and environmental impact by considering children when making investments.
In a perfect world, functional food systems would provide multiple benefits for everyone, including healthy diets, environmental sustainability, and improved livelihoods . Unfortunately, we live in a far from perfect world. Over three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet, some 735 million people face hunger, and obesity rates are on the rise .