2016 World Food Prize

2016 World Food Prize has been awarded to the four scientists- Dr. Maria Andrade, Dr. Robert Mwanga, Dr. Jan Low and Dr. Howard Bouis.
They are recognised for their work developing the vitamin-enriched orange-fleshed sweet potato. They have enriched the sweet potatoes using biofortification process making it a valuable source of calories and nutrients for millions of people.
In the developing world, Vitamin A deficiency is the most harmful forms of malnutrition which is the leading cause of blindness, maternal mortality, weak immunity, etc. More than 140 million pre-school children and more than 7 million pregnant women in several nations gets affected by the Vitamin A deficiency.
Biofortification improves the nutritional quality of food crops through agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or modern biotechnology. It can be the way to reach out to the populations where supplementation and conventional fortification activities are difficult to implement.