Biofortified Mustard Can Reduce VAD Prevalence in India
February 22, 2008| |
The report "Closing India's Nutrition Gap: The Role of Golden Mustard in Fighting Vitamin A Deficiency" concludes that biofortification strategies can be a cost-effective way to reach severely vitamin A-deficient households and can play an important role as part of a broader approach to reduce VAD prevalence in India. Golden Mustard, a vitamin A biofortified mustard, is being studied for its potential role in addressing a major problem in India which causes blindness, compromises immunity, and increases mortality especially among young children and pregnant and lactating women.
Ramanan Laxaminaryan and collegues from Resources for the Future, a non-profit research institution dedicated to independent analysis of environmental, natural resource, and public health policies, note that public health significance of VAD is under recognized in India. Supplementation, traditional fortification and food-based approaches are relatively unsuccessful. Although Vitamin A supplementation is more cost-effective, fortification and biofortification have greater reach and have the potential to avert a substantially greater VAD disease burden.
The full report is available at http://www.rff.org/rff/Publications/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=32504&CFID=8333646&CFTOKEN=16302614 http://www.rff.org/rff/Publications/Closing_India_NutritionGap.cfm
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