Howarth Bouis and the Story of Biofortification
On October 13, HarvestPlus founding director and ambassador-at-large Howarth Bouis will join three other scientists in receiving the World Food Prize for their work in biofortification. All four laureates have made key contributions to this novel approach to combatting vitamin and mineral deficiencies through more nutritious staple crops.
Today, biofortified crops are benefitting millions of people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These crops include vitamin A-rich varieties of sweet potato, cassava, and maize (corn), high-iron varieties of beans and pearl millet, and zinc-rich rice.
It was Bouis’ vision and tenacity that helped take biofortification from an idea in the mid-1990s to the increasingly respected and globally expanding nutrition intervention that it is today. Bouis’—and biofortification’s—journey is captured in the inspiring video below.