THE most valuable aid that Australia could lend to some developing countries is zinc-fortified wheat, a visiting crop researcher has said.
Ismail Cakmak, an award-winning Turkish researcher who leads an international zinc fertiliser project under the HarvestPlus program, wants governments to think differently about how they deliver aid.
Getting adequate food is a problem for an estimated billion people, but a deficiency of zinc and a related nutrient, Vitamin A, is a problem for some two billion - a third of the world's population.
Zinc deficiency can impair brain development, physical development and reduce effectiveness of the immune system. In 2008 it was estimated that 450,000 children died from causes relating to inadequate zinc.
The 2008 Copenhagen Consensus, the work of eight economists, five of them Nobel winners, ranked the importance of 30 actions addressing 10 global challenges.
Tackling zinc and Vitamin A deficiency was given first place, with an estimate that every dollar invested in countering the problem would deliver a $17 return.
Action on climate change appeared at number 14.
"The main reason is that the bulk of dietary intake for many people is grains - wheat, rice, maize - that are low in zinc," said Professor Cakmak, who works from Sabanci University in Istanbul.
Cereal grains have inherently low levels of zinc, compounded by the fact that they are often grown in soils with low zinc levels - as is the case across much of Australia.
In Australia, zinc deficiency is well-known but much less of a social problem because of the consumption of zinc-rich meat. In poorer nations, grains make up to 75 per cent of the diet.
Prof. Cakmak proposes a solution: invest some of the $4 billion that Australia annually spends on foreign aid programs in fortifying Australian wheat with extra zinc, and send wheat instead of other forms of aid to countries like Afghanistan or Pakistan, or India's Punjab.
He is delivering that message to Canberra during his current visit to Australia to brief farmers and scientists about crop nutrition.
Zinc levels in cereals can be boosted by two methods: breeding for increased zinc concentrations in grain, or through fertiliser applications.
Very promising breeding efforts are underway under the HarvestPlus program; but, breeding can take a long time, such as 10 to 15 years.
On the other hand, in-crop foliar applications of zinc have been proven through Gates Foundation- and fertiliser industry-sponsored trials to double concentrations of the nutrient in the grain, at a cost of around $10 to $12 a hectare.
As an agronomic bonus, Prof. Cakmak said, foliar zinc has been shown to increase wheat yields by up to five per cent in soils with low zinc levels, and boost seed germination percentages and seedling vigor.
Prof. Cakmak proposes that the Australian government undertake a trial program using two million tonnes of wheat a year for five years, and monitor the results on target populations.
Because one of the main effects of zinc deficiency is to stunt growth, monitoring the effectiveness of the program should be relatively straightforward.
The idea is "very simple, very valuable", he argues. Much of the aid money is invested in Australia, yet the program would strike at a chief cause of why foreign aid is needed in many developing countries.
However, how Prof. Cakmak's idea will fly in Canberra, where aid delivery flows through the deep ruts of government and NGO bureacracies, remains to be seen.
He has already floated the concept with Canada, which failed to act on it.
"I think decision makers just need to open their eyes," Prof. Cakmak said.
Prof. Cakmak received the IFA-International 2005 Crop Nutrition Award, and Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering 2007 Derek Tribe Award Medal.
He was brought to Australia by Owen McCarron of Connexus Global to brief farmers and scientists in South Australia and Victoria about crop nutrition.
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