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Advances in plant sciences for nutritional security

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Title Advances in plant sciences for nutritional security
 
Creator Muthamilarasan, Mehanathan
Prasad, Manoj
 
Subject Nutritional Security
 
Description Malnutrition and hunger among the world population at alarming rates pose
serious threat to global food security. Further, the FAO Hunger Report (2012) depicts
that, about 12.5 per cent of the global population (one in eight people) is starving,
excluding 100 million children under the age of five. Irrespective of the adults, about
2.5 million children die every year due to starvation and malnutrition which ultimately
hinder human potential (FAO Hunger Report 2012). Since, plants are the primary
producers in the food chain, they serve as versatile biochemical factories capable of
producing almost complete complement of essential dietary micronutrients. However,
the dietary micronutrients are unevenly disseminated among different plant parts.
For instance, iron content in a rice leaf is as high as 100–200 ppm (parts per million),
but very low in the polished rice grain (~3 ppm) (Mayer et al., 2008). Similarly,
provitamin A carotenoids are present only in rice leaves but not in its edible part.
Unfortunately, economically backward people rely predominantly on starchy staples
such as rice, wheat, maize, or cassava, but these crops do not supplement the
biochemical diversity needed for a healthy life which leads to micronutrient
malnutrition (MNM). Plant science has a central role in addressing these issues of
both hunger and malnutrition. Since, MNM affects more than half of the world
population, biofortification offers an economical and sustainable approach of
delivering micronutrients via micronutrient-dense crops to the human population.
Hence, this book chapter summarizes the strategies of generating biofortified-crop
plants along with the significant achievements reported in biofortification of major crop plants such as orange sweet potato, maize, cassava, rice, wheat and other crops
like lentils, banana, cowpea, sorghum and potato.
 
Date 2016-01-20T07:16:59Z
2016-01-20T07:16:59Z
2015
 
Type Book chapter
 
Identifier In: Peter KV (ed), Horticulture for Nutrition Security. Astral International Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India, pp 125-139
9789351246602
http://172.16.0.77:8080/jspui/handle/123456789/551
http://astralint.com/bookdetails.aspx?isbn=9789351246602
 
Language en_US
 
Publisher Astral International Pvt. Ltd.