Asia is fighting malnutrition by turbocharging fortified rice production

On a Bangkok side street where vendors serve traditional dishes of satay chicken, spicy pork, curried vegetables, and sweet mango over open flames and wide woks, the accompaniment is always the same: rice.

Thailand’s love of the grain is seen in other countries in Asia, too — Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and Cambodia.

It’s for this reason that the region’s governments, with support from the World Food Programme and the Asian Development Bank, are targeting rice to improve people’s overall health and nutrition. From India to Indonesia, governments have rolled out varieties of rice fortified with key minerals and vitamins, such as iron, zinc, folic acid, and vitamins A and B. They aim to tackle the third of women affected by anemia, the fifth of children experiencing stunting, and 1.7 billion people struggling to afford a nutritious diet.