Friesen Valerie M, Mudyahoto Bho, Nyangaresi Annette M, Gorla Ishank, Mbuya Mduduzi Nn
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, London, United Kingdom.
HarvestPlus, International Food Policy Research Institute, Kampala, Uganda.
Curr Dev Nutr. 2024 Oct 29;8(12):104498. doi: 10.1016/j.cdnut.2024.104498. eCollection 2024 Dec.
Biofortification of staple crops is a food-based strategy to reduce the high global burden of micronutrient deficiencies. Monitoring program performance is essential to ensure biofortification programs have high potential for impact; however, few indicators and methods for doing so are publicly available.
We documented the set of standardized indicators and methods used to monitor the Commercialization of Biofortified Crops (CBC) program and reviewed their strengths and limitations.
Following the CBC program impact pathway, we identified and defined a set of indicators and corresponding methods. Country-level implementation teams contextualized and operationalized them to monitor 9 country-crop programs (i.e., high iron beans in Kenya and Tanzania, iron pearl millet in India, vitamin A maize in Nigeria and Tanzania, vitamin A cassava in Nigeria, zinc wheat in Pakistan and India, and zinc rice in Bangladesh) from 2020 to 2022.
Twenty indicators were defined across domains of seed supply, production, availability, awareness, capacity development, advocacy, and consumption of biofortified foods. Data collection methods included external and internal document review, farmer household surveys, rapid market assessments, and modeling. The strengths of these methods were that they were rapid to conduct, low cost, and simple to use. For some methods, the limitations were the potentially reduced accuracy of some results due to the use of external data sources or secondary data inputs and unavailability of data.
The indicators and methods used in the CBC program are practical and cost effective for monitoring the implementation of biofortification programs because they generate the range of information necessary to understand how effectively a program is delivered and bolster plausibility arguments for attributing observed impacts to program activities. Further testing is needed to confirm their generalizability when applied to different contexts and paired with impact evaluations with the aim of producing publicly available global guidance documents.
主粮作物的生物强化是一种基于食物的战略，旨在减轻全球微量营养素缺乏的沉重负担。监测项目绩效对于确保生物强化项目具有高影响力潜力至关重要；然而，公开可用的相关指标和方法很少。
我们记录了用于监测生物强化作物商业化（CBC）项目的一套标准化指标和方法，并评估了它们的优缺点。
遵循CBC项目的影响路径，我们确定并定义了一套指标及相应方法。国家层面的实施团队将其因地制宜并付诸实践，以监测2020年至2022年期间的9个国家作物项目（即肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚的高铁含量豆类、印度的铁珍珠粟、尼日利亚和坦桑尼亚的维生素A玉米、尼日利亚的维生素A木薯、巴基斯坦和印度的锌小麦，以及孟加拉国的锌水稻）。
在生物强化食品的种子供应、生产、可得性、认知度、能力发展、宣传和消费等领域定义了20项指标。数据收集方法包括外部和内部文件审查、农户调查、快速市场评估和建模。这些方法 的优点是实施迅速、成本低且使用简单。对于某些方法，其局限性在于由于使用外部数据源或二手数据输入以及数据不可用，某些结果的准确性可能会降低。
CBC项目中使用的指标和方法对于监测生物强化项目的实施具有实用性和成本效益，因为它们能生成一系列必要信息，以了解项目实施的有效性，并为将观察到的影响归因于项目活动提供合理依据。在应用于不同背景并与影响评估相结合以生成公开可用的全球指导文件时，需要进一步测试以确认其通用性。
