Around 2 billion people are suffering from chronic malnutrition or “hidden hunger”, which is the result of many diseases and disorders, including cognitive degeneration, stunting growth, and mortality. Thus, biofortification of staple food crops enriched with micronutrients is a more sustainable option for providing nutritional supplements and managing malnutrition in a society. Since 2001, when the concept of biofortification came to light, different research activities have been carried out, like the development of target populations, breeding or genetic engineering, and the release of biofortified cultivars, in addition to conducting nutritional efficacy trials and delivery plan development. Although, being a cost-effective intervention, it still faces many challenges, like easy accessibility of biofortified cultivars, stakeholders’ acceptance, and the availability of biofortified germplasm in the public domain, which varies from region to region. Hence, this review is focused on the recent potential, efforts made to crop biofortification, impacts analysis on human health, cost-effectiveness, and future perspectives to further strengthen biofortification programs. Through regular interventions of sustainable techniques and methodologies, biofortification holds huge potential to solve the malnutrition problem through regular interventions of nutrient-enriched staple food options for billions of people globally.

The study used a large farm household level data to assess the economic impact of crop diversification and also identifies the factors influencing the extent of diversification in the north east region of India. The crop sector was found to be skewed towards specialization. The result of instrumental variable technique showed that crop diversification has a positively significant impact on the income among the households. Further, fractional logit estimation found that variables like family members in the working age group, landholding size, crop loss experience, extension contact, participation in training positively affected diversification. Irrigated area, access to institutional credit, etc negatively affected the same. Diversification towards high value crops may accelerate the agricultural growth of the region and improve the wellbeing of the farmers. Measures for improvement of basic infrastructural facilities and extension services for improving backward and forward linkages are required.

The aim of the present study was to examine the knowledge and attitudes related to food safety issues among consumers who had been the major consumers of the food items in the sample area. Interviews of 200 randomly selected consumers representing two districts in northern India were conducted. The study found significant differences among the age groups concerning attitude towards food safety practices. No significant differences in the demographic profile of the respondents about food safety practices were found. These findings indicated increased concerns about food safety knowledge and practices among the consumers. It is recommended that national surveys should be steered, followed with a suitably designed food safety public health campaign, to enhance food safety cognizance.