Panama Turns to Biofortification of Crops to Build Food Security

[Judi Lynn]

Panama Turns to Biofortification of Crops to Build Food Security
By Fabiola Ortiz

PANAMA CITY, Sep 16 2014 (IPS) - Panama is the first Latin American country to have adopted a national strategy to combat what is known as hidden hunger, with a plan aimed at eliminating micronutrient deficiencies among the most vulnerable segments of the population by means of biofortification of food crops.

The project began to get underway in 2006 and took full shape in August 2013, when the government launched the Agro Nutre Panamá programme, which coordinates the improvement of food quality among the poor, who are concentrated in rural and indigenous areas, by adding iron, vitamin A and zinc to seeds.

“We see biofortification as an inexpensive way to address the problem by means of staple foods that families consume on a daily basis,” Ismael Camargo, the coordinator of Agro Nutre, told IPS. Panama has pockets of poverty with high levels of micronutrient deficiencies, he explained.

In 2006 research began here into biofortification of maize; two years later beans were added to the programme; and in 2009 the research incorporated rice and sweet potatoes, as part of a plan that is backed by the National Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/09/panama-turns-to-biofortification-of-crops-to-build-food-security/

[PADemD]

1. biofortification

Is this the new term for GMO?

[Nihil]

2. GMO through the backdoor, under the floorboards, crawling through the roofspace ... like vermin ...

>> Biofortification is the development of micronutrient-dense staple crops
>> using the best traditional breeding practices and modern biotechnology.

>> unlike protein content and yield, which are negatively correlated; the
>> genetic control is simple enough to make breeding economic.

>> Transgenic approaches are in some cases necessary and, in some cases,
>> potentially advantageous compared with conventional breeding.

>> biofortified crops must be incorporated into existing marketing chains
>> or new market opportunities developed. To achieve this, the HarvestPlus
>> strategy centers on facilitating the dissemination of biofortified varieties
>> and creating the demand for these varieties by linking producers and
>> consumers through product and market development.

(http://jn.nutrition.org/content/136/4/1064.full)

Hey, the profit-makers need to have a real-life testbed market so a
tame nation full of poor foreigners is just ideal for them and, by their tactics
of relabelling, sorry, *rebranding*, they can sneak it under the radar ...