HarvestPlus, Cargill launch $3M NutriHarvest project to improve food security; initiative targets 119,000 farmers in India, Kenya, Tanzania, Guatemala, aims to deliver 17 million nutritious meals

[Washington, D.C., 19 September 2024] – HarvestPlus and Cargill are excited to announce the NutriHarvest project, a transformative 36-month initiative. This $3 million multi-year project, supported by Cargill and executed by HarvestPlus, is dedicated to increasing access to nutritious food while impacting more than 119,000 farmers across India, Kenya, Tanzania, and Guatemala, and delivering over 17 million nutritious meals.

Globally, around two billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, which can lead to serious health conditions such as stunting, night blindness, impaired brain development, weakened immunity, and even death. These deficiencies are often the result of diets heavily reliant on staple crops that lack essential micronutrients. The NutriHarvest project aims to address this challenge by promoting the production and consumption of nutrient-rich foods—such as biofortified staple crops, opportunity nutrient-dense crops, and animal-sourced foods.

The Project is aligned with the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS), which seeks to build a resilient food system grounded in diverse, nutritious, and climate adapted crops grown in healthy, fertile soils. Together, HarvestPlus and Cargill will increase the production and consumption of nutrient-dense opportunity crops, crops with unrealized potential to improve food and nutrition security in the context of climate change.

The NutriHarvest project will help improve farmer livelihoods, food security and nutrition in the communities served and is focused on three key areas:

1. VACS: This component is dedicated to increasing the production and consumption of opportunity crops that are both nutritious and climate-resilient. In Kenya and Tanzania, NutriHarvest will partner with seed companies and farmers to boost the production and cultivation of legumes and vitamin A sweet potatoes, to build a more resilient and diverse food system.
2. Home Grown School Feeding: By integrating nutrient-dense crops into local school feeding programs, NutriHarvest aims to improve dietary diversity for children. The project will support the production and distribution of biofortified seeds to farming households and will link the nutritious grain produced to school feeding programs through school gardens, contracts with farmers and millers, food banks serving schools, and partnerships with local enterprises. This will lead to a sustainable  increase in the availability of vitamin A maize and iron beans in Kenya and Tanzania, iron pearl millet and zinc wheat in India, and zinc maize and iron beans in Guatemala.
3. Hatching Hope: In India, NutriHarvest will help enhance the capacity of poultry farmers through the Hatching Hope initiative, which was launched in 2018 by Cargill with founding partner Heifer International. The project will provide training and support farmers, especially women, for adoption of better and more sustainable poultry farming practices to improve their household and drive local economic impact.

NutriHarvest aims to create lasting changing for communities around the world by empowering farmers to grow and market nutrient-rich crops, proteins and other foods and improve their livestock farming skills. This will make nutritious meals more accessible and affordable in local markets, driving a broader transformation to a more secure global food systems.

• “We are delighted to partner with Cargill and other partners in this transformative initiative, using our ecosystem approach to deliver improved nutrition through VACs, biofortified crops, and school meals while improving livelihood for smallholder farmers and households,” Arun Baral, CEO of HarvestPlus and HarvestPlus Solutions stated.
• “In Tanzania, the NutriHarvest Project offers a unique opportunity to respond to the three leading micronutrient deficiencies: vitamin A, iron, and zinc, through production and consumption of opportunity crops that are frequently consumed by households vulnerable to malnutrition,” Penina Muoki, HarvestPlus country manager for Tanzania said.
• “As a connector of the global food system, Cargill is uniquely positioned to address the most pressing challenges and help improve food security. Through our work with the NutriHarvest project and VACS, we are deepening our commitment to increasing food access and building long-term resiliency in communities, by that improving nutrition and farmer livelihoods,” Pilar Cruz, Chief Sustainability Officer at Cargill, said.

The launch of the NutriHarvest project represents a significant step forward in the fight against global malnutrition. We invite our partners to join us in supporting this vital initiative.

For more information about the NutriHarvest project or to join the initiative, please visit https://www.nutriharvest.com/