The population of the
developing countries like the Pakistan is increasing more rapidly than the
average growth rate 1.8% of world’s population (Population Division, 2009). The
increasing food demands in the developing countries need another food revolution
(Huang et al., 2002). Almost 65% of the world is total population is starving
for food and its proportion more in poor countries of the world (Food Security
Statistics, 2008).
At the present scenario along with the food security, Malnutrition is becoming
an important problem in the areas where improper food supply and lack of the
diversification in the foods. Micronutrients deficiency has directly concern
with Malnutrition.
According to World Health Organization the deficiency of the Zinc, iron and
vitamin in human population is more in the developing countries of the world.
Deficiency of Zinc in humans is Causes five major diseases and also causes death
(WHO, 2002).
There are 2.7 billion people suffer from zinc deficiency in the world (WHO,
2002; Muller and Krawinkel, 2005). In future according to experts about more
than 50% population of the world is under the risk of zinc deficiency and it is
more in the poor countries of the Asia and Africa.
(Figure1)
In Pakistan the deficiency of Zinc is at the alarming stage, almost every third
children is suffer from zinc deficiency and about more than 40% of the mothers
are suffering from deficiency of Zinc Bhutta et al. (2007).
In the developing countries of Africa and Asia, mostly people depended upon the
cereals for food and there is almost no diversification in food. Requirement of
zinc is differ with respect to gender and growth period for example a women
require 10 mg Zn d−1 and an adult man require 12 mg Zn d−1 for their proper
growth and development. But their requirements cannot be fulfilled due to the
lack of diversification in food habits and depended upon the cereals which are
low in the Zinc% (Bouis and Welch, 2010).Pregnant women require more zinc almost
14 mg Zn d−1 during their pregnancy and also throughout their lactation period.
In most of the countries zinc deficiency occurs because people of these
countries are eating cereals like the wheat and rice for example in Pakistan,
India, Iran and China, wheat and rice are grown on the soils having low zinc
status and the grains of the crops provide too less concentration of Zinc to
fulfill the human requirements (Alloway, 2008: IZA, 2009).
Bio fortification is only and single option to tackle the issue of Zinc
deficiency among the population of the developing countries and from all over
the world. Wheat is the staple food of the areas where the Zinc deficiency is
present so the zinc fortified wheat is the best option to overcome of this
problem (FAO Database, 2005; Seleiman et al., 2010).
The Common verities of wheat are unable to get the enough Zinc form the alkaline
calcareous soils and semiarid conditions to meet their own proper growth and
development (IZA, 2009). So the less availability of the zinc responsible for
the low grain yields low concentration of zinc and causing the zinc deficiency
in the humans.
A common wheat grains have 25-30 μg Zn g−1 dry weight. It is necessary for to
cover the zinc requirements from the grains of wheat it should be more >50 μg Zn
g−1 dry weight of grains of wheat (Cakmak, 2008).
Zincol is the Zn fortified variety of wheat growing in the Pakistan, which has
the more zinc concentration in their grains, leaves and stem also than the
local/ common wheat varieties. It has almost 3-5 times more Zinc concentration
in their grains with the almost equal yield of grains as like local varieties of
wheat. Zincol is the genetically Zinc fortified variety which is more efficient
to uptake the zinc from the soil and also the translocation of the zinc within
the plant into the grains. Figure 2
Grains of Zincol (Figure 2)
Through growing the Zn fortified varieties like the zincol in all over the world
and eating the grains obtained from these types of varieties, we can inhabit the
zinc deficiency in all over the world.
So we can protect our self, our children and our future generation through
invading the practice of growing the fortified varieties into our traditional
agricultural cropping system.
References:
Alloway, B. J. 2008. Zinc in Soils and Crop Nutrition, 2nd edition. IZA
Brussels, Belgium and IFA Paris, France.
Bhutta, Z. A., A. Jiwani, A. Feroze, N. Kissana and I. O. Monasterio. 2007.
Assessment of human zinc deficiency and determinants in Pakistan: Implications
for interventions. In: Proceeding of International Zinc Association conference
‘Zinc Crops 2007 - Improving Crop Production and Human Health’. May 24–26, 2007.
Istanbul, Turkey.
Bouis, H. E. and R. M. Welch. 2010. Biofortification: A sustainable agricultural
strategy for reducing micronutrient malnutrition in the global south. Crop Sci.
50:S20–S32.
Cakmak, I. 2008. Enrichment of cereal grains with zinc: Agronomic or genetic
biofortification? Plant Soil 302:1–17.
Food Security Statistics. 2008. The State of Food Insecurity in the World. Rome,
Italy: Food and Agricultural Organization.
Huang, J., C. Pray and S. Rozelle. 2002. Enhancing the crops to feed the poor.
Nature 418:678–684.
IZA. 2009. Zinc in Fertilizers: Essential for Crops, Essential for Life!
International Zinc Association, Brussels, Belgium.
FAO Database. 2005. Online at < https://faostat.fao.org/site/609/default.a spx#ancor>
on May 5, 2010.
Food Security Statistics. 2008. The State of Food Insecurity in the World. Rome,
Italy: Food and Agricultural Organization.
Muller, O. and M. Krawinkle. 2005. Malnutrition and health in developing
countries. Can. Med. Ass. J. 173:279–286.
Population Division. 2009. World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision.
Working Paper No. ESA/P/WP.210. United Nations, Department of Economic and
Social Affairs, New York, USA.
Seleiman, M. F., S. M. Abdel-Aal, M. E. Ibrahim and P. Monneveux. 2010.
Variation of yield, milling, technological and rheological characteristics in
some Egyptian bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars. Emir. J. Food Agric.
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