Indian poor's staple diet -- rice wheat and maize -- will soon get a booster dose of minerals and vitamins.

The Central government's ambitious campaign - 'India Biofortification Programme' -- is set to get a major scientific thrust to increase levels of nutrition with the help of HarvestPlus, which is co-led by Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture.

According to an IFPRI press release, the Union Government and HarvestPlus have signed a memorandum of understanding to conduct research on increasing the level of essential vitamins and minerals, or micronutrients in crops critical to poor people by harnessing agricultural technology.

The diets of poor people in the country are often deficient in iron, zinc, and Vitamin A, and such deficiencies can lead to illness, blindness, premature death and impaired mental development, particularly among women and children.

Biofortified crops can help address these nutritional deficiencies as poor people rely heavily on staple foods in their diets.

HarvestPlus seeks to breed staple crops for better nutrition through a process known as 'biofortification'.

Under the MoU, HarvestPlus will help advance biofortification through a series of steps. These include development and sharing of methods and approaches for measuring minerals and vitamins in staple crops; exchange of research samples and data to advance biofortification research; and forging research partnerships with key Indian stakeholder institutions to study the nutritional content and impact on human health of micronutrients in biofortified staple crops.