Annual Report 2006/07 - ETH - North-South Centre North-South ...

ZIL research project, Phase VProject leadersRainer Schulin / Richard Hurrell /Emmanuel FrossardContact personManouchehr Amini, Mahin Karami,Nazamin Roohani SharakiCollaboratorsMajd Afyuni, Amir Khoshgoftarmanesh,Isfahan University of Technology, Iran /Claudia Binder, University of Zurich / ArminKeller, Agroscope Reckenholz-Taenikon (ART)DurationJuly 2007 – June 2010ZIL research projectsMicronutrientmodellingFood quality and public healthZinc fluxes from the soil into the food chain inarid agro-ecosystems – A case study in IranZinc (Zn) deficiency is now recognised as a major problem ofhuman nutrition worldwide. It is particularly severe wherepopulations depend on cereals as staple food and have aninsufficient dietary intake of Zn from legumes or animalproducts (a widespread situation in arid regions of developingcountries). Biofortification of food crops is a promisingstrategy to fight mineral malnutrition in these countries. Inaddition to breeding for crop varieties with enhanced Znefficiency,the adaptation of farming practices such as fertilisationand other soil amendments has potential, as well, toimprove the Zn density of consumed parts of food plants.Independent of the chosen strategy, sustainable solutionsmust consider the system of land use, agricultural managementpractices, food production, consumer behaviour, andhuman nutrition as a whole. Such an approach requires theknowledge and understanding of the relevant Zn fluxesthrough the system.Irrigation agriculture in central IranThe objective of this project is to develop a system of modelbasedprocedures by which the fluxes of the essentialmicroelement zinc through the food chain from soil throughplants and livestock to the human population can beassessed on a regional or larger scale and that can be used (i)to identify dominant Zn pathways in human nutrition forarid regions where Zn deficiency is a major problem; (ii) toanalyse effects of soil, climate, land use and agricultural practiceson the nutritional quality of the produced foodstuffswith respect to Zn availability for humans; and (iii) to evaluateagricultural options to reduce dietary Zn deficiency.For this purpose, an existing model which has been developedfor the assessment of regional-scale heavy metal fluxesin Swiss agro-ecosystems will be extended to include thefood chain from crops to humans and adapted to the conditionsof arid regions, using central Iran as an exemplary case.27