Study finds adding zinc to farmland soil can prove helpful in preventing childhood stunting in India
zinc to farmland soil can help prevent childhood stunting — a condition due to chronic undernutrition — in India, according to a study. Chronic undernutrition is associated with poor brain development and long-lasting harmful consequences, such as reduced school performance and increased disease risks, the researchers said.
The study, published recently in the journal Scientific Reports, is the first large-scale research to examine the association between children's nutritional status or health outcomes and soil mineral availability in India, where more than a third of children under five suffer from stunting.
«Our results add to a growing body of literature suggesting that interventions like micronutrient-enriched fertilisers may have a positive effect on health,» said study lead author Claire Morton, an undergraduate student in mathematics and computational science at Stanford University, US.
«This doesn't prove that those interventions would be cost-effective for India, but it's an exciting indication that they are worth testing,» Morton said.
The researchers analysed health data from nearly 300,000 (3 lakh) children and one million women across India with over 27 million soil tests drawn from a nationwide soil health programme.
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They found that that the presence of zinc in soil helps prevent stunted childhood growth, and iron in soil helps keep hemoglobin-a protein in red blood cells that
