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  • Publication | 2021
Study on HarvestPlus' contribution to the development of national biofortification breeding programs
Global Food and Nutrition Security

This evaluative review is one of a series of end-of-program studies being carried out by the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) to document lessons from its achievements to inform future research and development (R&D) efforts. This study looks at lessons learned from HarvestPlus’ work with National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) to develop and implement sustainable biofortification breeding programs. HarvestPlus is part of A4NH.

Starting in the late 1990s, CGIAR began looking at the potential for breeding to increase the micronutrient concentration in staple crops (aka biofortification) in an effort to contribute to a reduction in micronutrient malnutrition. Most of this work has taken place under HarvestPlus, which began a ‘proof of concept’ phase in 2003. The review focuses on HarvestPlus’ second and third phases in which biofortification breeding programs were established in several countries.