A ‘food basket’ approach for scaling up Biofortified Crops and enhancing Nutrition Security in Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence (percentage of population) of hunger. One person in four in this region is undernourished. The vast majority of people also suffer micronutrient malnutrition (hidden hunger) because they do not consume enough micronutrients required to lead healthy and productive lives. The Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) Project through a multi-crop (‘food basket’) approach advocates for increased investment in biofortified crops as a sustainable way to combat micronutrient malnutrition, especially among young children under the age of five and women of reproductive age. BNFB also focuses on developing institutional capacity to design and implement gender-sensitive programs and projects to ensure wide access and utilization of biofortified crops in selected African countries.