Which of the following pairs of biofortified crops are correctly matched?

I. Biofortified maize - Rich in amino acid lysine and tryptophan
II. Biofortified wheat - Rich in protein content
III. Biofortified rice - 5 times rich in iron

1. I, II and III
2. Only II and III
3. Only I and II
4. Only I and III

The correct option is A I, II and III

A large section of the world's population does not have access to adequate quantities of food to meet their nutritional requirement. Many people cannot afford to buy enough fruits, vegetables, legumes, fishes and meat. Hence they suffer from micronutrient deficiency in their body. The issues related to micronutrient deficiency generally goes unnoticed, hence the term ‘hidden hunger’ is used to refer micronutrient deficiency.

Biofortification is the process of breeding nutrient rich crops with higher levels of vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc. These crops were developed with the aim to provide adequate amount of nutrients through regular staple diet to all people.

Few examples of the biofortified crops are given below.

Atlas 66 is a vareity of wheat with high protein content. It has high content of the amino acid lysine in it. Due to its high protein content, Atlas 66 is used in plant breeding programmes to improve the wheat quality.

Maize hybrids with twice the amount of the amino acids, lysine and tryptophan were developed.

Rice variety containing five times more iron compared to the other hybrid varieties was developed and used for anaemic patients.