**4.1 Technology efficacy of zinc biofortification in rice**

The current zinc intake from common rice varieties was determined based on the per capita consumption of 220 grams of rice per day. Improved zinc intake from bio-enriched rice varieties was calculated assuming that India's current rice consumption pattern is maintained and bio-enriched rice varieties are being adopted as a technology.

**Figure 2.** *Managing zinc deficiency through agronomic approach.*

#### **Figure 3.** *Managing zinc deficiency through Particle Gun method.*

Zinc is a component that contains more than 300 enzymes to repair cell damage, maintain fertility, synthesize proteins, and boost immunity among many important functions in human health [7]. Symptoms of zinc deficiency, large or small, can cause stunting, eczema, hair loss, delayed sexual maturation, and mental illness. Sustainable supply of dietary supplements (fertilization) and bioenrichment requires urgent efforts to overcome micronutrient deficiencies. Provision of supplementation through zinc fertilization of rice can increase zinc levels in rice [8]. However, this method is less effective due to nutritional loss from runoff, leaching, and the evaporation process. Therefore, a new strategy to overcome malnutrition of micronutrient is by the mean of biofortification. Biofortification provides a costeffective and sustainable solution in tackling the lack of nutrients supply [9]. This method is one of the plant breeding strategies to increase the zinc content in rice while improving the nutrition capacity with relatively low cost. Breeding materials are conventionally formed (hybridization and selection) or nonconventional (another culture and gene transformation). High zinc levels rice produced by these, inexpensive cost, production can be consumed directly by the middle to lower community as a source of energy and sources of nutrients [10]. As a result of these findings, rice has a high micronutrient content. Rice with a high micronutrient content can help customers get more micronutrients and overcome micronutrient insufficiency.
