Question

What is biofortification ? Explain selective breeding with suitable examples.

Answer 1

Foods are biofortified in order to increase the nutrient content and prevent the deficiency of respected nutrients. There are many methods to biofortification.

Complete answer:
Biofortification is a process done to increase the nutritive content in the food. Different crops are bred to produce a new high-yielding crop. There are mainly two methods till now to biofortified foods.
Selective breeding
Genetic modification

SELECTIVE BREEDING: In this method, the seeds and germplasm of the crops which are rich in nutrients are selected and then they are crossbred with the crops which have high-yielding variety in order to produce large amounts of seeds with more nutritive value. Both the crops that are crossbred contain sufficient amounts of nutrients. This method is cheaper, faster than the genetically modified crops. This increases the vitamin, mineral and protein content of the crop. Wheat variety and Atlas-66 with high protein content are examples of selective breeding.

Desired characteristics of plant breeding:
-Disease resistance in food crops
-Wheat plants that produce lots of grain
-Large flowers

Deficiency of vitamin A, iron and zinc are common in most people. It makes the immune system weak, stunted growth and poor vision. Also, rice wheat and maize are common diets in the country. Thus, these crops are selectively bred to increase the nutrient content.

Note: Biofortification is also done in common salt by adding iodine in it to prevent iodine deficiency and anemia. Iodine deficiency is common in hilly areas