Question

If some crop is lacking a nutrient, we can enhance its nutritional quality by

• A. biofortification
• B. hybrid breeding
• C. bioprospecting
• D. biomagnification

Answer 1

The correct option is A biofortification

Biofortification is the process by which the nutritional quality of food crops is improved through modern biotechnology. Biofortification differs from conventional fortification. Biofortification aims to increase nutrient levels in crops during plant growth through the process of breeding of crops with the desired nutritional quality rather than through manual means during processing of the crops.

Hybrid breeding is the process in which breeding of crops takes place in order to obtain a hybrid of superior quality with various distinct properties like disease resistance etc.

Bioprospecting can be considered as the process of organised and systematic search done in order to obtain useful and beneficial products from various bioresources like plants, animals or micro-organisms. The products obtained can then be commercialized and used for the benefit of the society.

Biomagnification is the increase in the accumulation of toxins as we go to the higher trophic levels in the food chain.