Hear much about zinc deficiency in soils, crops and people?
Me neither.
But it’s a gigantic world problem, afflicting all of Asia, Australasia, Africa and Latin America – causing hundreds of thousands of child deaths per years in developing countries.
It’s not a big problem here in northern North America, according to Turkish scientist Ismail Cakmak of Sabanci University, because soils here are not nearly as zinc-deficient as elsewhere. Zinc deficiency in people is almost entirely due to zinc deficiency in crops produced on zinc-deficient soils. It’s a Top 10 health risk in much of the world.
I must say it was nice to hear that Canada is funding a good share of the international effort to develop crops for zinc-deficient areas that will incorporate more micronutrients, and to find methods and fertlizers that will get more zinc into people’s diets. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the biggest contributor, but CIDA is a big contributor too.
Cakmak said Canada could do much to improve the lives of millions of people around the world if it produced and exported zinc-enriched wheat, which could be done cheaply by just adding a bit to other fertilizers. That would help alleviate a critical health problem overseas with little cost to farmers here.
This complex soil composition, crop nutritional uptake and human incorporation stuff is generally way over my head – although I find it fascinating – so I am happy a smarter somebody is down here covering this for the Western Producer. Here’s a photo of Ron Lyseng, one of our farm production specialists, at work, a moment before he realized I was taking his photo without permission from his agent:
Watch for Ron’s story a few issues from now.
