Gabriela Burgos, a scientist at the International Potato Center (CIP) in Peru, has received the Top Agriculture Pioneer Award from the World Food Prize Foundation for her work establishing the bioavailability of iron in two new potato varieties developed in Peru.
Iron deficiency is a leading cause of anaemia, which affects millions of people, especially women and children, causing fatigue, impairing learning and reducing productivity. Burgos's research answered a basic question for nutrition: it is not enough for a potato to contain more iron; the body must be able to absorb and use it. Her work provided the evidence that the biofortified potatoes can improve iron intake.
Biofortification raises a crop's nutritional value through breeding, unlike conventional fortification, which adds nutrients during processing. CIP says the approach suits the Andes, where potatoes are central to diets, farming and culture, because families do not have to change what they eat: iron-rich potatoes improve a food they already know.
CIP is careful about the claim. The potatoes are not a cure for anaemia, it says, but as part of a diversified diet and wider public health efforts they offer a sustainable way to tackle iron deficiency.
Photo: Nina Reicer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: International Potato Center
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