Often hunger in poor areas is combated by governments and development organizations by ensuring physical access to food. Little attention is paid much to hidden hunger that comes from poor nutrition - which is equally harmful.

There is an African adage that says “when hunger is taken away from poverty, poverty becomes a lot more manageable”. This is in recognition of food as one of the basic needs, and probably the most vital need, to human survival. This proverb, though, only talks about hunger in the form of physical access to food and more calories, and do not take into cognizance the type of food or the nutritional status of the calories consumed.

Just like the thought behind the saying has focused on physical access to food, most efforts by researchers, development organizations and governments have in the past focused mainly on increasing the amount of calories available to poor people with little emphasis on the nutritional quality of the food. Often, this “real” hunger is tackled leaving behind the “hidden hunger” which can – and often does – have equally devastating effects.

However, this started to change some years ago when nutritionists were able to draw more attention to the linkage between nutritious food and good health (and vice versa) and successfully showed that food security without nutritional security is not enough; prompting the FAO (in 2001) to update its definition of food security to “…access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”

Nutritional Security Challenges

In the 2013 State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) report, the FAO highlighted that 842 million people are “undernourished” globally. However, it was noted that in some countries, the incidence of under-nutrition – as manifested in the percentage of children affected by stunting – is considerably higher compared to that of undernourishment – defined by dietary intake.

As access to food increases in many countries and the incidence of undernourishment is tackled as part of the drive towards attaining the Millenium Development Goals, under-nutrition persists. Despite increased calories intake, essential nutrients required by the body for growth and to fight infections are low in the food consumed. Developing countries, especially in Africa, are disproportionately affected by this hidden hunger and within each country, women and children are worst affected.

For example, 1.6 billion people suffer from iron deficiency anaemia in the world; out of this, 42% are pregnant women. In Africa, 68% of children under age five and 57% of pregnant women are anaemic. Same goes for other essential micronutrients like zinc and iodine. About 500,000 children die annually of zinc deficiency. Zinc deficiency is the 5th leading risk factor for death and diseases in developing countries; impairs immune systems and increases susceptibility. 

Biofortification to combat hidden hunger

For this reason, CCAFS in collaboration with NUI Galway has embarked on a research that strives to biofortify and climate-proof common food crops for sustainable maternal/child nutrition in some of the most affected parts of Africa – namely Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania. The research which is aimed at developing and harnessing biofortified drought-tolerant beans varieties that can deliver higher levels of three key micronutrients – iron, zinc and selenium – is supported by Irish Aid and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).

Beans are regarded as “meat of the poor” in Africa. Therefore, this research focuses on breeding nutritionally improved beans varieties – most especially the common bean – that is widely grown and consumed by the poor in targeted vulnerability hotspots of the selected countries. The rationale for this is to develop varieties, which meet both the agronomic and food needs of smallholder farmers and improve the nutrition of women and children.

Climate-proofing food materials

The other aspect of the research is centered on climate-proofing essential crop varieties through the development of higher yielding varieties with high nutrients, which provide equally increased tolerance to drought and heat stress caused by higher temperatures and precipitation variabilities – that are expected fallouts of climate change.

This is important to safeguard food/nutrition supply systems against climate change and improve smallholder farmers’/women’s resilience to climate variability. As beans have the ability to fix nitrogen, it also negates the need for investment in fertilizers, while providing high, nutritionally-balanced proteins and essential micronutrients – iron, zinc and selenium – required by the human body.

Ongoing research, encouraging results

Although, this research is still ongoing, already there are encouraging results. Initial field trials at the Chitedze Research Station in Malawi have produced biofortified bean varieties that are additionally high yielding in comparison to the non-biofortified and landrace varieties. However, the development of new lines takes a long time, usually 6 – 8 years, and the whole breeding to dissemination (including adoption by farmers down to the consumers) spectrum can take 12 – 15 years.

Still, considering the current and impending climate change and food security challenges, it is a worthwhile investment. And when they are finally released, the new bean varieties can help combat both real and hidden hungers in some of the world’s most undernourished regions.