One
of the sessions at the Micronutrient
Forum in Mexico this week was on large scale rice fortification.
Very few countries
mandate large scale rice fortification and yet at least 2 billion people
consume rice on a regular basis in significant quantities, with a large overlap
with the billions facing deficiencies of iron, folate and B vitamins.
Rice fortification,
hiding in plain sight. So, it’s a no brainer, right?
Not quite. First, as
one member of the audience said, we need to make sure that those who have these
deficiencies actually consume enough rice for fortification to make a
difference.
Assume that is the
case, then we have to generate the demand for fortified rice (as one audience
member said, via push marketing to rice millers and government and via pull
marketing directed to consumers). Then we need to bundle demand to make
it worth it for the supply chains to respond. Public procurement via
safety nets and humanitarian interventions (e.g. the WFP) seem to offer a lot of promise too.
There are technical issues, but none of them seemed any more intractable than
those found in wheat fortification which is much more widespread.
What seems to me to
be lacking is ambition and leadership. The
Food Fortification Initiative’s Executive Director, Scott Montgomery, said
we are in a chicken and egg situation: how do we cover the upfront costs to kick
start demand and supply creation? This type of initiative is made for the
Decade of Action for Nutrition. In 10 years we would want to see a large
percentage of the world’s rice consumption being fortified, addressing the
needs of many of anaemic women and children, and men.
We need a plan, and a
group of organisations to coalesce around that. WFP
and GAIN are already discussing how to
do this and there are others who need to join such as the Food Fortification Initiative, MI and DSM. These
organisations need to commit their resources to this effort before going to the
donors for further investment.
Fortifying rice does
not seem to be prohibitively risky. We should launch a relentless effort to get
it going. Now. If we did not pursue this opportunity — in a careful but
aggressive way — it would be irresponsible. GAIN is committed to playing its part
to work with partners in supporting all major rice producing countries to
fortify their rice by 2026 — for export and for their own population’s
wellbeing.
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