Responding to Crisis, Building Resilience

The rapid expansion of the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 posed serious challenges to people everywhere. For the primary beneficiaries of HarvestPlus—smallholder farming families and low-resource consumers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America—the pandemic’s health threat was compounded by increased economic, food, and nutrition insecurity. To address these challenges, HarvestPlus and its partners pivoted to crisis-response mode.

This Annual Report describes steps we took to ensure that millions of farming families dependent on biofortified crops for essential micronutrients, nourishment, and livelihood, did not miss a crucial planting season or lose their links to post-harvest markets. We helped biofortified food businesses—many run by women—continue to source needed raw material, and we contributed to humanitarian relief efforts for hard-hit communities.