In Kapilvastu and Rupandehi, some farmers have started growing something special. But many don't know what makes it different.
It's called Zinc Gahun 1, a wheat variety bred to contain higher concentrations of zinc and iron in the grain. Nepal released it in 2020, along with five other biofortified varieties: Zinc Gahun 2, Bheri-Ganga, Himganga, Khumal-Shakti, and the disease-resistant Borlaug 2020. Zinc Gahun 1 is the most widely grown biofortified wheat variety in this region.
The idea was straightforward: micronutrient deficiencies, including iron and zinc deficiencies, remain a nutritional concern in Nepal. These deficiencies can affect children's growth, development, immunity, and learning. Because wheat is widely consumed, increasing the concentration of zinc in a staple crop could help improve dietary zinc intake. For farmers, the variety can be grown much like conventional wheat while delivering higher zinc concentrations in the grain.
It should be a quiet success story. Instead, it's a missed one.
Take a farmer in Dhamauli, Ward 7 of Kapilvastu Municipality, one of the first in his area to try Zinc Gahun 1 in the 2081/82 season. He saw good grain in his own field, with some plots yielding well over 150 kg per kattha, and word got around fast. By the next season, several neighbors had followed his lead. But none of them, including him, knew they were growing a zinc-rich variety. Their agrovet sold it the same way it sells everything else: as high-yielding wheat. The nutrition never came up.
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The seed moved. The information didn't.
I talked to wheat-growing families across Kapilvastu and Rupandehi last season. Not one farmer who hadn't planted Zinc Gahun knew it was a special, nutrient-rich variety. And among those who had planted it, almost none- just 3 out of 100 in my survey- knew what made it nutritionally different.
Ask farmers why they grew it, and they all say the same thing: it gives a better harvest. Not one mentioned zinc or iron. In my survey, Zinc Gahun 1 had a higher average yield than HD2967, the variety most farmers already trust, although the difference was not statistically significant, and it didn't cost any more to grow. Farmers know why it grows well. The nutrition information is missing.
The market doesn't reward nutrition.
There's another problem hiding here. Once harvested, Zinc Gahun 1 grain sells for the same price as ordinary wheat. Millers don't pay more for it. Markets don't separate it. So even a farmer who somehow learned about the zinc wouldn't get rewarded for it at the point of sale. The only thing paying off right now is yield. The nutrition adds nothing to a farmer's income, and nothing to a buyer's choice, because nobody can tell the difference once it leaves the field.
This lack of understanding may already be putting the future of the crop at risk. When I asked adopters whether they planned to keep growing Zinc Gahun the following season, only 45.3 percent said yes without hesitation. The rest were either undecided or said no. That means fewer than half of the farmers in my survey were firmly committed to growing it again. A farmer who adopted Zinc Gahun purely for its yield has little reason to remain loyal to the variety if a newer, higher-yielding option comes along. Nothing about its nutritional value gives that farmer a reason to keep choosing it over whatever performs best next season. Awareness isn't just about getting farmers to start. It may be what gives them a reason to continue.
Nepal isn't the only country to try this. Across several African countries, biofortified crops have been promoted through programs that combine improved seed with nutrition education and community outreach. In Malawi, for example, HarvestPlus paired the distribution of biofortified maize and beans with cooking demonstrations and nutrition training aimed at parents and school staff, not just the planting material itself. Awareness wasn't left to chance. It was treated as part of the job, just like growing the crop itself.
Pakistan tried this first with wheat. In 2016, it released its own zinc-rich variety, Zincol-2016. At first, adoption remained very low, accounting for less than 1 percent of the country's wheat area, according to research published in 2022. Researchers found the problem wasn't taste; blind tests showed none. It was that nobody had told farmers or buyers why the wheat was different. Pakistan responded with a large-scale awareness push, radio campaigns, farmer trainings, and village demonstrations, reaching thousands of farmers in a single season, according to HarvestPlus, the organization that led the effort. Today, HarvestPlus reports that Akbar-2019, one of Pakistan's zinc-biofortified wheat varieties, now covers more than 40 percent of the country's total wheat-growing area. The lesson isn't that awareness is hard. It's that Pakistan did the work, and Nepal hasn't yet.
Fixing this doesn't need new science. It needs the information to move with the seed. In Pakistan and Malawi, nutrition messaging was integrated into farmer trainings, radio spots, demonstrations, and other channels already used to promote improved seed and farming practices. Nepal needs a similar approach. Seed companies, government extension workers, and agrovets should be given clear information about which varieties are biofortified and why that matters, so the message reaches farmers at the point where they make planting decisions. Not a new institution, but better information through the institutions already in place.
Nepal has invested in breeding these traits into six different wheat varieties. The zinc is already reaching people's plates, whether they know it or not. What's missing is everything that depends on awareness: farmers aren't necessarily seeking out these varieties for their nutritional value, millers aren't distinguishing or rewarding the grain, and consumers have little way of knowing what makes it different. Without awareness across the chain, there is no way to build demand or scale the nutritional impact. A small premium for certified biofortified grain, paid by millers or cooperatives, could give farmers a reason to keep it separate at harvest and keep choosing it next season. It would turn nutritional value into something the market recognizes, rather than something that disappears once the grain leaves the farm.
The science is done. The communication isn't. The seed moved. The information never did.
The author holds a master's degree in Agricultural Economics. This piece draws on findings from his master's thesis, based on a 2026 field survey of wheat-growing households in Kapilvastu and Rupandehi districts.
