Recent Approaches and Improvements in the Nutritional Status of Vegetable Crops

An increasing global population, inadequate food and nutrition, malnutrition, and vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies plague most developing countries worldwide. Vegetables are the greatest and least expensive sources of nutrients, especially for vegetarians, and are an essential part of balanced diets that contribute to human growth and development. Concerns over health and nutrition have led vegetable breeders to pay more attention to the quality of their vegetables and value-added products. Traditional agricultural practices can partially increase the nutritional value of plant products, but biofortification is the enrichment of food crops with nutrients using agronomic, conventional, and transgenic breeding methods to achieve a long-term sustainable strategy to eliminate the harmful effects of vitamins and nutrients. Many land races, historical varieties, pre-breeding lines, and wild relatives are excellent sources of nutrients. The ideal methods for increasing the nutritional concentration in vegetables would be appropriate poly-cross breeding techniques combined with population evaluation on a broad scale. In addition, a number of agronomic techniques like grafting and soilless culture, along with the application of biotechnological tools and molecular marker-assisted selection, would undoubtedly speed up the process and increase the probability of success in nutrient enhancement of vegetable crops.