WHAT IS the advantage of adding pro-vitamin A in rice?
A vast majority of the population, especially those below the poverty line in developing countries, are malnourished. Vitamin A is specifically required for preventing night blindness and to ensure normal development and growth. It is not to say that malnourished people especially children suffer only from vitamin A deficiency. But this is just the first step in meeting their micronutrient requirements. Why did you choose this route when well-established methods like food fortification exist? Fortifying food is a well-proven technology but you should remember that it is very expensive. And when the entire exercise is to make it available to the poor it makes little sense to go this route. The same holds good in the case of drugs too. On the other hand, getting the crop plants themselves to do the job of fortifying a required vitamin is an ideal solution. Biofortification as it is called is less expensive and can be easily delivered to the target audience when done in crops like rice th
