For decades, the global fight against malnutrition has relied heavily on donor-funded interventions. While these efforts have saved countless lives, today’s changing development landscape demands a new model—one that delivers lasting impact through sustainable markets, strategic partnerships, and private investment.
That transformation is already underway.
HarvestPlus and HarvestPlus Solutions are demonstrating that better nutrition can be delivered at scale by integrating science, business, and inclusive market systems. The organisations’ latest annual results show that biofortification has evolved beyond an agricultural innovation into one of the world’s largest market-led nutrition movements, creating opportunities for governments, investors, businesses, and farming communities to jointly address hidden hunger while strengthening resilient food systems.
Today, more than 650 million people across 13 countries consume biofortified foods, representing an 11 percent increase over the previous year. Approximately 25 million farming households are producing nutrient-rich crops that improve family nutrition while generating income, and 174 million school-aged children now consume biofortified foods in their homes. These achievements illustrate that nutrition interventions can move beyond pilot projects to become commercially viable solutions reaching hundreds of millions of people.
Turning Public Research into Sustainable Markets
Around the world, billions of dollars are invested each year in agricultural research. Yet many promising innovations fail to reach the farmers and consumers who need them most.
HarvestPlus addresses this challenge by facilitating development of nutrient-enriched staple crops through science and research, while HarvestPlus Solutions focuses on transforming these innovations into sustainable market systems. Rather than relying on continuous subsidy, the model aligns incentives across the value chain—connecting researchers, seed companies, farmers, food processors, retailers, governments, and consumers.
The results demonstrate that nutrition can become good business.
By the end of 2025, the annual commercial value of biofortified seed exceeded USD 184 million, while harvested biofortified crops generated more than USD 11 billion in value. Growing private-sector confidence is enabling nutritious crops to scale through commercial seed systems and competitive markets, creating shared value for businesses and communities alike.
This market-driven approach strongly aligns with AVPN’s mission of mobilising capital toward scalable, sustainable solutions that create measurable social impact.
Partnerships Driving Systemic Change
No single organisation can transform food systems alone.
HarvestPlus Solutions now work alongside more than 4,400 public and private sector partners across governments, research institutions, agribusinesses, financial institutions, schools, civil society organisations, and farming communities. These partnerships demonstrate how collaborative ecosystems can accelerate innovation, improve nutrition, and strengthen local economies simultaneously.
Private-sector engagement continues to expand across multiple value chains.
In Pakistan, collaboration with more than 390 value chain partners has enabled zinc wheat to reach approximately 198 million consumers, representing nearly 76% of the country’s population. Annual production now exceeds 204,000 metric tons of certified zinc wheat seed, while the harvested crop generates over USD 5 billion in value every year.
In Nigeria, private investment in biofortified seed systems reached USD 24 million, supporting the expansion of vitamin A maize, cassava, and iron pearl millet while improving market access for farmers and nutritious food availability for consumers. These examples demonstrate how nutrition investments can simultaneously generate economic returns, strengthen agricultural markets, and improve public health outcomes.
Investing in Children and Future Generations
Nutrition is not only a health issue but also an investment in human capital.
HarvestPlus Solutions continues to integrate biofortified foods into school feeding programmes that improve children’s nutrition while creating predictable markets for local farmers.
In 2025 alone, nearly 1.9 million learners across India, Kenya, Malawi, and Tanzania received school meals containing biofortified foods—a 55% increase from the previous year. The Home-Grown Nutritious School Meals model strengthens local food systems by sourcing crops directly from smallholder farmers, creating a virtuous cycle that benefits agriculture, education, nutrition, and rural livelihoods.
This integrated approach exemplifies the kind of cross-sector collaboration increasingly championed by impact investors and development partners across Asia.
Women as Drivers of Food System Transformation
Women remain central to the success of resilient food systems.
Across multiple countries, HarvestPlus Solutions supports women not merely as programme beneficiaries but as entrepreneurs, scientists, seed producers, farmers, and business leaders.
From women scientists advancing zinc rice development in Indonesia to women farmers expanding iron pearl millet production in Nigeria and entrepreneurs establishing nutrition-focused enterprises in Pakistan, investments in women are delivering measurable improvements in household nutrition, incomes, and community resilience.
These experiences reinforce growing evidence that empowering women generates multiplier effects across food security, health, education, and local economic development.
Science that Enables Scale
Strong evidence remains essential for attracting investment.
In 2025, HarvestPlus researchers introduced an innovative methodology for estimating the number of people consuming biofortified foods, published in Current Developments in Nutrition. The methodology provides governments, investors, and development partners with a practical tool to measure programme reach and evaluate consumption of nutritious crops more effectively.
Meanwhile, more than 490 biofortified crop varieties have now been released across 41 countries, demonstrating the maturity of the global innovation pipeline and providing governments and investors with a growing portfolio of proven nutrition solutions.
A Growing Opportunity for Impact Investment
Asia faces a unique convergence of challenges. Rapid urbanisation, climate change, changing diets, and persistent micronutrient deficiencies require solutions that improve nutrition while strengthening resilient food systems and creating economic opportunity.
HarvestPlus Solutions demonstrates that these objectives are not mutually exclusive.
By combining scientific innovation with commercial markets, public-private partnerships, inclusive business models, and evidence-based scaling, the organisation has created a platform capable of delivering measurable nutrition outcomes alongside sustainable economic growth.
For AVPN’s community of philanthropies, family offices, corporations, foundations, and impact investors, this represents an opportunity to support solutions that move beyond short-term interventions toward long-term systems transformation.
As development financing evolves, the future of nutrition will increasingly depend on investments that generate both social impact and sustainable markets. HarvestPlus Solutions offer a compelling example of what that future looks like: science translated into enterprise, partnerships translated into scale, and innovation translated into healthier lives for hundreds of millions of people.
The next chapter in ending hidden hunger will not be written by aid alone. It will be driven by collaboration, investment, and markets that make nutritious food accessible, affordable, and available for everyone.
