Biofortification is the enrichment of staple food crops with essential micronutrients. Focusing on the case of rice biofortification, this elegantly written book argues that increasing concerns over food security are pushing policy-makers towards taking top-down approaches to science and research policy. According to the author, involvement of developing country governments and research institutions has been minimized and important factors associated with the diversity of local needs and contexts have been overlooked.

The book is critical of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) as the world's main proponent of biofortification research efforts. The author relates her concerns to a belief that international crop research organizations need to raise funds and prove their legitimacy to an international community of policy-makers. To counterbalance such perceptions, this reviewer points out that the work of CGIAR centres is inextricably linked with that of national and regional organizations across the developing world. In that context, it seems inconceivable that major CGIAR biofortification initiatives would lack inputs that address local concerns.

The author questions whether rice biofortification should be accorded such high priority. Indeed, as emphasized by HarvestPlus, no single intervention will solve the micronutrient malnutrition problem but, by providing some of the recommended daily allowance for micronutrients, biofortified crops might be effective in reducing malnutrition. Such a possibility is dismissed by the author as a ‘silver bullet’ approach that negates more ‘incremental’ solutions. The book would have been strengthened by a more detailed description of alternative possibilities and how they could be implemented.