Can the private sector help improve nutrition?

Biofortified seeds in India demonstrate a successful model.

Reaching new consumers with innovations is always a challenge. This is particularly true if these consumers live in rural areas with poor infrastructure and weak markets. Biofortified nutritious crops offer an innovative new way to improve nutrition, especially in communities that rely on small-scale farming for their incomes and daily diets.

Like much of the world’s population, most families in India subsist on nutrient-poor staple food crops such as rice, wheat, and iron pearl millet. HarvestPlus is leading the effort to make these staples more nutritious and deliver them to farmers and consumers. Using conventional plant breeding techniques, crops are improved to provide a significant percentage of a consumer’s daily requirements for vitamin A, iron and zinc, without decreasing yield or increasing costs.  

Having improved the nutritional content of a staple crop, HarvestPlus and its partners must get the crops to farmers and consumers. Rural farmers in India rely on a vast network of small-scale seed distributors, supplied by national and regional seed companies, to purchase improved seed. HarvestPlus is harnessing the power of this distribution model in scaling up the delivery of high-zinc wheat and high-iron pearl millet in India.

Through crop-focused networks of private seed companies, HarvestPlus is able to pitch and link the supply of new biofortified varieties, from testing to commercialisation. Information is key in this process. Like the consumers who ultimately buy the seeds, private seed companies are more likely to adopt a new agricultural technology once they know and are convinced about its benefits and marketability. The seed companies and contract growers are, therefore, the first to get new information on a biofortified variety’s agronomic benefits, agro-ecological adaptability and nutritional value to use for marketing.

HarvestPlus’ Wheat Partnership Platform now counts 13 private seed companies as members (Ajeet Seeds, Astha Beej, Ankur Seeds, Bombay Super Hybrid Seeds, Eagle Seeds, Meta-Helix, Nirmal Seeds, Nuziveedu Sethi Seeds, Sai Seeds, Sood Seeds, Shakti Vardhak Seeds and Wheat Berry Agro Tech). That is an impressive adoption rate for a technology that entered the market only a few years ago.

In 2015, varieties of high-zinc wheat commercialised by private seed companies reached 100,000 smallholder farmers. The companies are reporting that demand for new wheat varieties is now outstripping supply. Networks distributing high-iron pearl millet have reached 190,000 smallholders.   

“Initial reports from farmers in Bihar state indicate that our variety is performing better than a popular existing non-biofortified wheat variety,” says Sumant Sood, who owns Sood Seeds in Bazpur, Uttarakhand. “We don’t envisage any major problems in substantially increasing the market for the crop.”

The private seed companies are excited to lead in the growing market for nutritious foods in India, aware that they are providing farmers improved varieties that grow and yield well on their farms. These networks demonstrate the true power that the private sector can bring to efforts to scale up the delivery of nutritious foods globally.

This blog is part of the December 2016 series on Inclusive Business models delivering nutrition, in partnership with DFID and GAIN. Don’t miss the webinar series in January 2017 on Marketing nutrition to the BOP.