An estimated 3 billion people are at risk of low zinc intake across Asia. Supplementation trials have shown that zinc can substantially reduce the severity of a number of common childhood infections, including diarrhea, pneumonia, and possibly malaria. Yet supplements are difficult to administer and do not always get to those in need.

Wheat is the staple food for millions of people in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. HarvestPlus is working to improve zinc levels of high-yielding, disease resistant varieties of wheat being developed in India and Pakistan as one method of reducing zinc deficiency for millions of undernourished.

Experts Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health at the Aga Khan University a leading zinc scientist and Dr. Ivan Ortiz-Monastario, Wheat Crop Leader for HarvestPlus and Senior Agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), will present the latest research findings related to zinc and human health in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the HarvestPlus strategy to address this deficiency via biofortification of wheat in the region.