Soil health to human and animal health through breeding biofortified cultivars and balanced nutrient management for nutrition revolution in India

India has larger prevalence of micronutrient malnutrition as 50% of children and women are suffering from one or more essential micronutrient deficiency. There is an urgent need for the country to address this issue of malnutrition holistically through addressing the issue of soil health to animal and human health. Widespread multi-nutrient deficiencies in soil are resulting in nutrient deficient food leads to malnutrition. Feeding the children with supplements to address the issue is good to fix the issue quickly. However, in long-term, to find a sustainable solution, we need to adopt holistic approach. Along with demonstrated soil health management, biofortification research at ICRISAT is focused on improving grain Fe and Zn density. Our approach is to provide a “proof of concept” to address the issue of malnutrition through soil health management and biofortification of staple food crops. To make impact, soil health mapping, balanced soil nutrient for increasing crop yields and quality are proposed. Government of India has taken up soil health mapping and issuing soil health cards to all the farmers. Further, integration of biofortified cultivars of crops like millets in the states and country strategy, would help to achieve future targets of biofortified cultivars to reach one billion people by 2030. Market is a key driver for long-term adoption of biofortified cultivars by farmers and consumers, and a recent initiative on Smart-foods on millets and pulses by ICRISAT is expected to enhance this uptake process in collaboration with food industries. Holistic approach starting with identifying the soil nutrient deficiencies, meeting the crop demands through balanced soil nutrient management and using biofortified cultivars, can have increased micronutrient uptake capacity as well as capacity to have nutrient dense grains and fodder by increased nutrientuse efficiency and would significantly contribute to improved nutrition by increasing the daily micronutrient intakes as evidenced by bioavailability studies in millets..