From October 2020 to June 2021, our CERP and Precision Development (PxD) teams in Pakistan implemented a groundbreaking new pilot to promote the adoption of two zinc-biofortified wheat varieties to smallholder and progressive farmers in Punjab Province.1 The project was executed in partnership with HarvestPlus, a program of CGIAR, whose mission is to “build sustainable food systems and bridge the gap between agriculture and nutrition… by breeding vitamins and minerals into everyday food crops”.
Zinc deficiencies are particularly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries, which bear a disproportionate burden of micronutrient deficiencies more generally. Adequate zinc micronutrient consumption is critical for gene expression, cell division, the development of immunity, and reproduction. A zinc-deficient diet can weaken and undermine the development of immune systems, trigger stunting and inhibit cognitive functioning in children, and contribute to pregnancy complications. Among young children, zinc deficiency significantly increases the risk of severe outcomes associated with diarrhoea, pneumonia, and malaria, including death.
Rigorous prevalence studies are limited, however available information suggests widespread zinc deficiency among children in Pakistan: More than one-third of preschool-aged children and more than half of primary school children were assessed to be zinc deficient. While data is lacking, studies also suggest an alarming rate of zinc deficiency among pregnant women, which may contribute to Pakistan’s poor infant and maternal mortality rates.

Picture: Asghar Ali Gulshan is growing Akbar-19 (grain packet at left) on 18 acres for the Akhuwat University of Punjab.

Sixty percent of the average Pakistani citizen’s daily diet consists of wheat products. For poor, rural, and wheat farming populations, this is likely to be higher. Encouraging the adoption of zinc-biofortified wheat may significantly boost zinc consumption within smallholder households, with positive implications for the health of smallholder families. HarvestPlus estimates that regular consumption of zinc-biofortified wheat can provide up to 60 percent of daily zinc needs for women and children, which is 30 percent more than commonly grown varieties. Moreover zinc-biofortified varieties offer additional advantages to farmers – they have been developed to be more disease resistant, and are associated with higher yields than traditional varieties.
The pilot, which commenced in October, was focused on raising awareness about the nutritional and agronomic benefits of zinc-biofortified wheat. Launched during the 2020 Rabi wheat season (the second sowing season which runs from October through December, and which is harvested in April through May), the pilot continued until June 2021.
PxD and CERP partnered with HarvestPlus to send customised SMS and push calls to 100,000 farmers in five districts of Punjab in Pakistan. Advisory content provided information in local languages (Urdu and Saraiki) to farmers. In addition to pushing advisory information to farmers, the pilot included a helpline, backed by a call centre, which farmers could call with questions, and which was used to obtain farmer feedback about adoption of biofortified crops and to conduct farmer profiling via surveys and focus groups.
1.3 million SMS and 967,668 push calls were placed to farmers. Push call content focussed on the benefits of zinc for nourishment, immunity against diseases, and the relative resistance of Akbar19 and Zincol16 wheat varieties to rust and other wheat pests and diseases compared to wheat varieties more commonly planted in Punjab.
A total of 1,325,464 SMS were sent to farmers in a series of 15 campaigns. Messages provided information on the signs of and risks posed by zinc deficiency, the agronomic and nutritional benefits of zinc wheat, and the commercial benefits of zinc wheat to farmers.
This project and the messages that were sent to farmers were approved by the Government of Punjab, Department of Agriculture, which plays a critical role in ensuring the smooth functioning of the agricultural system in Pakistan. Working hand in hand with government officials, PxD, CERP, and HarvestPlus will bridge the gap between the public and private sector by linking farmers to seed providers.
Across 103,938 farmers pickup rates averaged 53 percent and listening rates averaged 76 percent. High pick-up rates and listening rates for robocalls suggest strong interest on the part of farmers for information about zinc-biofortified wheat seeds.
After the SMS and robocalls campaign was completed, a profiling survey was conducted in which over 8,000 farmers were contacted. Based on our profiling survey, the number of users of Akbar-19 and Zincol-16 has gone up from 131 to 872 this season in the five districts, however, it is important to keep in mind that this rise could be due to more than just our campaign, and other factors such as increased seed availability helping to boost adoption of Akbar-19 could have played a role in the growth in take-up. Of farmers who reported planting zinc-biofortified wheat, 58 percent reported SMS/robocalls as their primary source of information about zinc-biofortified wheat seeds, 91.9 percent of survey respondents stated that the advisory content was easily understandable, and 98.6 percent of the farmers reported that it was useful.
A post-harvest survey was completed in May/June 2021 with 679 farmers who had previously indicated that they had used one or both zinc-biofortified seeds in Rabi 2020-2021 season. Due to the absence of a control group, these results are a comparison of the farmers’ yield, income, and general experience as compared to wheat varieties from last season. It was reported that the average yield amounted to 47.95 maunds/acre for Akbar-19 in the Rabi 2020-2021 season, whereas an average of 41.49 maunds/acre has been reported for other wheat varieties in the Rabi 2019-2020 season. 76.44 percent of farmers who completed the post-harvest survey reported an increase in their yield this season. Both progressive and smallholder farmers reported an increase of 33 percent in income from wheat harvest in the Rabi 2020-2021 season as compared to the income earned in Rabi 2019-2020.
While surveys do not reach the threshold of a rigorous evaluation, they do suggest that the pilot campaign to promote zinc-biofortified seeds was quite successful. The results of the survey suggest high levels of behaviour change and input adoption. Plantings reported by farmers suggest that in the 2021 Rabi season, Akbar-19 was the third most planted seed variety among farmers surveyed by PxD and CERP. At a minimum, the pilot suggests that digital information services can be used very effectively to scale the promotion of campaigns to promote nutritious crops at a very low cost per farmer. PxD and CERP are engaged with HarvestPlus to expand the pilot in Pakistan, and we hope to include a rigorous evaluation in a scaled-up initiative.
Footnotes
1As determined in the most recent Agriculture Census, a farmer working 25 acres or more is designated as a “progressive farmer”. In 2010, farms with less than 5 acres of land constituted 64 percent (5.35 million) of total private farms but they operated only 19 percent (10.18 million acres) of the total farm area. Whereas, farms that were of 25 acres and above in size, comprised only 4 percent (0.30 million) of total farms but commanded 35 percent (18.12 million acres) of total farm area. The average size of farms in the country was 6.4 acres whereas the cultivated area per farm was 5.2 acres.