Declining nutritional quality of food crops, combined with soil nutrient depletion and limited dietary diversity, is emerging as a growing threat to public health in Bangladesh and across the world, with millions of people facing hidden hunger despite consuming sufficient calories.

The nutritional value of food crops worldwide is progressively plummeting to an all-time low under the combined impact of modern intensive agricultural practices and severe climate change, according to a global research report.

Although crop yields and sizes have expanded over the past few decades due to production-oriented cultivation, the concentration of essential micronutrients-such as zinc, iron, and protein-in rice, wheat, and vegetables has dropped by 20 to 50 percent. Consequently, despite consuming enough calories to satisfy hunger, millions of people are suffering from a severe form of 'hidden hunger' or invisible malnutrition caused by the lack of vital vitamins and minerals, emerging as a critical new global crisis for public health policymakers.

This alarming finding was revealed in a comprehensive global research report titled "Hollow Harvests: Rebuilding the nutritional value of crops in an age of abundant calories," jointly published in early October 2026 by the UK-based non-profit science organization Deep Science Ventures (DSV) and the Marc Leonard Trust.

A recent 2026 meta-analysis by researchers at Leiden University, which examined nearly 60,000 nutritional measurements across 43 crop species, further supports this crisis. The study found that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels accelerate carbohydrate accumulation in plants, while simultaneously diluting protein, zinc, and iron levels by an average of 3.2 percent. In certain crops like chickpeas, zinc depletion reached as high as 37.5 percent. These severe findings have forced agricultural and nutritional scientists to urgently rethink food systems.

Experts say modern intensive agricultural practices, a monotypic reliance on high-yielding varieties, and severe climate change are aggressively reducing the nutrient density of staple crops worldwide. 

Over the past few decades, global food security strategies focused heavily on agricultural volume over nutritional quality. While this successfully increased overall food production, it left the final product nutritionally depleted. As a result, millions of people who consume enough calories to satisfy hunger are still suffering from "hidden hunger" -- a severe form of micronutrient deficiency.

National and international nutritional surveys show that the crisis is particularly acute in Bangladesh. According to the latest National Micronutrient Survey, approximately 44 percent of children and 57 percent of adult women in the country suffer from severe zinc deficiencies. 

Despite consuming large quantities of rice as a daily staple, the population faces persistent deficits in essential minerals like zinc and iron. This is primarily caused by the low nutrient density of modern high-yielding white rice, coupled with a general lack of a diversified diet.

Historically, this trend was documented in a landmark December 2004 study by Dr. Donald Davis and his team at the University of Texas, who analyzed long-term data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) spanning 1950 to 1999. Their research proved that 43 different garden crops exhibited statistically significant declines in calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin C, and protein. Agricultural scientists refer to this phenomenon as the "dilution effect," where a plant's physical size and yield grow faster than its ability to absorb and distribute nutrients.

Compounding the issue, the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and continuous cultivation has severely damaged underground networks of mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial soil microorganisms. 

Soil science journals have demonstrated that these microorganisms are essential for helping plant roots absorb mineral nutrients from the earth. With these biological networks compromised, crops cannot access vital elements.

According to the annual and national land degradation reports by the Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI), intensive farming practices have left nearly 76.2 percent of Bangladesh's cultivable land suffering from moderate to severe nutrient depletion. 

The agency's countrywide soil nutrient mapping indicates that organic matter in more than half of the agricultural land has dropped below the ideal threshold to less than 1 to 1.5 percent. Furthermore, an acute shortage of vital micronutrients like zinc, boron, and sulfur has developed across nearly 5.5 million hectares of arable land.

International nutritionists warn that less than three-quarters of the bread-wheat varieties developed since 1960 meet minimum baseline standards for zinc content. This systemic nutrient loss renders traditional dietary guidelines ineffective. For instance, to get the same amount of potassium provided by a single carrot grown 60 years ago, an individual today must consume twice the amount.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and public health experts, declining crop nutrition directly threatens human health. It acts as a primary driver behind rising rates of anemia, osteoporosis, and chronic malnutrition among pregnant women and children across developing regions in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Consuming nutrient-deficient food weakens immune systems, creating an enormous financial burden on global healthcare systems and posing a direct threat to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger and Improved Nutrition) by 2030.

To combat this deficiency crisis, the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) has successfully introduced biofortified zinc rice varieties (such as BRRI dhan-74 and BRRI dhan-100), which significantly help meet daily zinc requirements. 

However, BRRI scientists caution that consumer preferences for heavily milled and polished "Miniket" rice strip away 70 to 80 percent of the iron and zinc naturally present in the grain's outer bran layer. 

Therefore, changing consumer eating habits is just as critical as cultivating biofortified crops. BRRI researchers are currently developing a dual-premium "Healthier Rice" variety aimed at meeting 80 percent of daily zinc and 50 percent of daily iron requirements within a single grain.

Faced with this systemic decline, experts are urgently calling for an overhaul of prevailing agricultural policies. They argue that agricultural subsidies and incentives should shift away from rewarding gross weight or yield alone, and instead begin incentivising "nutrient yield."

Additionally, they recommend the mandatory adoption of regenerative farming, organic crop rotation, and microbial inoculants to restore soil vitality. Encouraging farmers to diversify away from hybrid rice and wheat toward locally adapted, nutrient-dense traditional grains and millets is also deemed vital.

Policy analysts conclude that ensuring food availability and abundant calories is no longer the sole benchmark for food security; securing nutrient-dense, high-quality food for future generations is now the defining global challenge.

Source - https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd