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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Carlo Azzarri

Carlo Azzarri is a Senior Research Fellow in the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. His work focuses on the relationships among poverty, nutrition, food security, agriculture, the environment, production, and migration—analyzed at both micro and macroeconomic levels, primarily using quantitative methods.

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Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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experts

Innovation Policy and Scaling

Jen Foley

Senior Program Manager, HarvestPlus

Bio

Jen Foley is a Senior Program Manager and the lead of knowledge translation for HarvestPlus in the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. HarvestPlus improves nutrition and public health through biofortification and provides global leadership on agricultural-nutrition evidence and technology. Jen leads multicountry projects across Africa and Asia that bring together interdisciplinary partners to implement and scale proven solutions that tackle malnutrition. She also supports the generation of scientific evidence through the HarvestPlus research portfolio on the efficacy of nutrient-enriched crops on nutrition and health globally. Jen has field experience in West and East Africa, including in Gambia, Rwanda, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as in South and Southeast Asia, particularly in India and Cambodia.

Before joining IFPRI, Jen managed research projects and gained expertise in science communications at HarvestPlus and at universities and research institutes in Canada and the United Kingdom. She received a master of science degree in public health nutrition from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and bachelor’s degrees in life sciences and kinesiology and physical education from Edinburgh University, UK, and Queen’s University, Canada.

HarvestPlus

Innovation Policy and Scaling

Publications

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Journal Article

Biofortification: Future challenges for a newly emerging technology to improve nutrition security sustainably

2024
Bouis, Howarth E.; Foley, Jennifer; Lividini, Keith; Jumrani, Jaya; Reinke, Russell; Van Der Straeten, Dominique; Zagado, Ronan; Boy, Erick; Brown, Lynn R.; Mudyahoto, Bho
…more Alioma, Richard; Hussain, Munawar; Pfeiffer, Wolfgang H.
Details

Biofortification: Future challenges for a newly emerging technology to improve nutrition security sustainably

Biofortification was coined as a term to define a plant breeding strategy to increase the micronutrient content of staple food crops to reduce the burden of micronutrient deficiencies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In 2003, the HarvestPlus program, based in the centers comprising the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), was initiated to implement the biofortification strategy. This paper discusses what has been achieved, what has been learned, and the key challenges to embed biofortification in food systems and to expand its impact. Cost-effectiveness is key to the biofortification strategy. Biofortification piggybacks on the agronomically-superior varieties being developed at agricultural research centers. Central plant breeding research discoveries can be spread globally. Farmers have every motivation to adopt the latest high-yielding, high profit crops. High productivity leads to lower food prices. As a consequence, consumers can increase their mineral and vitamin intakes at no additional cost by substituting biofortified staple foods one-for-one for non-biofortified staple foods. After twenty years of investment, biofortified staple food crops are being produced by farmers in over 40 countries and are eaten by hundreds of millions of people. Published nutrition trials have shown nutrient-rich crops to be efficacious. The biofortification strategy is now recognized by the international nutrition community as one effective approach among several interventions needed to reduce micronutrient deficiencies. This is a promising beginning. However, biofortification is still a newly emerging technology. A limitation of biofortification as implemented to date is that densities of single nutrients have been increased in given staple food crops. To reach a higher trajectory, the impacts of biofortification can be multiplied several-fold using genetic engineering and other advanced crop development techniques to combine multiple-nutrient densities with climate-smart traits.

Year published

2024

Authors

Bouis, Howarth E.; Foley, Jennifer; Lividini, Keith; Jumrani, Jaya; Reinke, Russell; Van Der Straeten, Dominique; Zagado, Ronan; Boy, Erick; Brown, Lynn R.; Mudyahoto, Bho; Alioma, Richard; Hussain, Munawar; Pfeiffer, Wolfgang H.

Citation

Bouis, Howarth; Foley, Jennifer; Lividini, Keith; Jumrani, Jaya; Reinke, Russell; Van Der Straeten, Dominique; et al. 2024. Biofortification: Future challenges for a newly emerging technology to improve nutrition security sustainably. Current Developments in Nutrition 8(12): 104478. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cdnut.2024.104478

Keywords

Agricultural Research; Biofortification; Malnutrition; Nutrition Security; Sustainability; Technology; Trace Elements

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cdnut.2024.104478 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

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Book Chapter

Plant-source foods: Leveraging crops for nutrition and healthy diets

2024Boy, Erick; Brouwer, Inge D.; Foley, Jennifer; Palacios, Natalia; Scott, Samuel P.; Taleon, Victor
Details

Plant-source foods: Leveraging crops for nutrition and healthy diets

Addressing the urgent need for food systems to support sustainable healthy diets will require a major improvement in the availability of and access to affordable, nutritious foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in low- and middle-income countries, along with increased consumer demand for healthy diets. Plant-source foods are key components of sustainable healthy diets. This chapter examines food crops that could be leveraged to improve health outcomes, describes production systems and their role in providing populations access to highly nutritious crops, and presents examples of evidence-based technologies that improve the nutritional content of crops, especially for vulnerable populations.

Year published

2024

Authors

Boy, Erick; Brouwer, Inge D.; Foley, Jennifer; Palacios, Natalia; Scott, Samuel P.; Taleon, Victor

Citation

Boy, Erick; Brouwer, Inge D.; Foley, Jennifer; Palacios, Natalia; Scott, Samuel P.; and Taleon, Victor. 2024. Plant-source foods: Leveraging crops for nutrition and healthy diets. In Global food policy report 2024: Food systems for healthy diets and nutrition. Chapter 6, Pp. 54-61. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141888

Keywords

Nutrition; Healthy Diets; Food Crops; Food Consumption; Biofortification; Food Processing

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Book Chapter

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Journal Article

Preventing and controlling zinc deficiency across the life course: A call to action

2024Lowe, Nicola M.; Hall, Andrew G.; Broadley, Martin R.; Foley, Jennifer; Boy, Erick; Bhutta, Zulfiqar A.
Details

Preventing and controlling zinc deficiency across the life course: A call to action

Through diverse roles, zinc determines a greater number of critical life functions than any other single micronutrient. Beyond the well-recognized importance of zinc for child growth and resistance to infections, zinc has numerous specific roles covering the regulation of glucose metabolism, and growing evidence links zinc deficiency with increased risk of diabetes and cardiometabolic disorders. Zinc nutriture is thus vitally important to health across the life course. Zinc deficiency is also one of the most common forms of micronutrient malnutrition globally. A clearer estimate of the burden of health disparity attributable to zinc deficiency in adulthood and later life emerges when accounting for its contribution to global elevated fasting blood glucose and related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Yet progress attenuating its prevalence has been limited due, in part, to the lack of sensitive and specific methods to assess human zinc status. This narrative review covers recent developments in our understanding of zinc’s role in health; the impact of the changing climate and global context on zinc intake; novel functional biomarkers showing promise for monitoring population-level interventions; and solutions for improving population zinc intake. It aims to spur on implementation of evidence-based interventions for preventing and controlling zinc deficiency across the life course. Increasing zinc intake and combatting global zinc deficiency requires context-specific strategies and a combination of complementary, evidence-based interventions including supplementation, food fortification, and food and agricultural solutions such as biofortification, alongside efforts to improve zinc bioavailability. Enhancing dietary zinc content and bioavailability through zinc biofortification is an inclusive nutrition solution that can benefit the most vulnerable individuals and populations affected by inadequate diets to the greatest extent.

Year published

2024

Authors

Lowe, Nicola M.; Hall, Andrew G.; Broadley, Martin R.; Foley, Jennifer; Boy, Erick; Bhutta, Zulfiqar A.

Citation

Lowe, Nicola M.; Hall, Andrew G.; Broadley, Martin R.; Foley, Jennifer; Boy, Erick; and Bhutta, Zulfiqar A. 2024. Preventing and controlling zinc deficiency across the life course: A call to action. Advances in Nutrition 15(3): 100181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advnut.2024.100181

Keywords

Zinc; Micronutrient Deficiencies; Deficiency Diseases; Biofortification; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advnut.2024.100181 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Events

Micronutrient Forum: 6th Global Conference
IFPRI at External Event

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October 16 to 20, 2023

Micronutrient Forum: 6th Global Conference

Hybrid Conference: October 16, 2023 – 8:30 AM to October 20, 2023 – 5:00 PM CEST. IFPRI is pleased to participate in this year’s Micronutrient Forum 6th Global Conference, being held at the World Forum in The Hague October 16–20, with a focus on “Nutrition for Resilience (N4R).