Iron and zinc based biofortified potatoes: Scaling strategies to fight against anemia in the Andes
Year: 2025
Type: report
Abstract: Alliance: Cooperation between public, private, and community institutions that share common objectives.Alliances allow pooling efforts, scaling up, and ensuring the continuity of biofortified potatoes over time.Biofortification: Process that increases the content of essential micronutrients (such as iron, zinc, or provitamin A) in crops through genetic improvement and/or agronomic practices, aiming to achieve measurable improvements in the nutritional status of consumers.For biofortified potatoes, the goal is to develop varieties that help reduce anemia, improving health and food security for families. GESI (Gender, Equity, and Inclusion Systems):An approach that ensures innovations promote equal opportunities, participation, and benefits for women, youth, and traditionally marginalized groups.Scaling: Expansion and adaptation of an innovation to benefit more people and territories, ensuring sustainability.In this case, it involves strengthening capacities and alliances to increase access, production, and consumption of biofortified potatoes. Horizontal Scaling (Scaling Out):Expansion of an innovation to new territories, communities, or sectors, increasing adoption and the number of beneficiaries.Deep Scaling (Scaling Deep): Cultural, social, or behavioral change process aimed at transforming values, attitudes, and practices to ensure sustainable and inclusive impacts. Vertical Scaling (Scaling Up):Integration of an innovation into policies, regulations, or public institutions to consolidate its sustainability and long-term impact.Strategy: A coordinated action plan that guides the development and expansion of the innovation.It defines goals, resources, partners, and key steps to position biofortified potatoes in sustainable food systems.Innovation: Application of new ideas, knowledge, or technologies that improve potato production, consumption, and value.It emerges from joint work among researchers, farmers, consumers, and other food system actors.Impact: Positive changes resulting from innovation, such as improved nutritional status, rural incomes, or gender equity.It reflects the tangible benefits of biofortified potatoes in people's lives.Nutrition: Set of processes that ensure people obtain the nutrients necessary for a healthy life.Biofortified potatoes contribute to better nutrition by providing essential vitamins and minerals in the daily diet.Scaling Readiness / Scaling Use: CGIAR methodological framework to assess the degree of readiness (Scaling Readiness) and adoption or use (Scaling Use) of an innovation, identifying barriers, opportunities, and strategies for scaling.Certified Seed: Seed produced under official quality standards, guaranteeing genetic purity, health, and viability, and certified by a competent authority (in Peru, SENASA). Quality Declared Seed (QDS):An intermediate category between certified and traditional seed, created by FAO in 2006 as a flexible option for countries where formal certification is costly or difficult.In Peru, it may come from up to two multiplications of the certified class or three of the genetic class, without going through the official certification process; therefore, quality is the producer's responsibility (Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, 2018).
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Funders: United States Agency for International Development, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, International Fine Particle Research Institute, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Ministerio de Salud, Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, International Fund for Agricultural Development
OpenAlex ID: W7124697387