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Add to Preferred SourcesUK aid is investing in new research to develop nutrient-rich, climate-resilient super crops to improve the diets of people in the world’s poorest countries.
The Department for International Development (DFID) is to give fresh funding to help create the crops, which will improve the health and nutrition of women, adolescent girls and children under five in almost 14 million households in the developing world by 2022.
The UK aid funded crops are also bred to be more resilient to climate change. They are on display this week at the Chelsea Flower Show in a garden developed by female education charity, CAMFED. It is the first garden in the show’s history to feature such super crops.
“It is often the poorest people who are the most affected by increasingly erratic weather and rising temperatures, which is why UK aid is supporting the development of the latest technology and science to help crops withstand drought and floods,” said International Development Secretary Rory Stewart.
Many varieties of these nutrient-rich crops can provide up to 80% of the daily vitamins required for women and children. These biofortified crops are also bred to have higher yields.
UK aid has already played a major role in the development of biofortified crops, which are now grown and harvested across 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-Asia. They include maize, cassava and sweet potato, all rich in vitamin A, beans and millet, rich in iron, and wheat and rice, rich in zinc.
Original source: DFID
Published on 22 May 2019