Biofortification of Banana: Enriching Staple Crops with Essential Nutrients

Musa spp., commonly known as banana, is an economically significant fruit crop that is grown around the world in tropical and subtropical climates. Being the fourth all-season commercial crop after wheat, rice, and maize, it not only ensures food security by providing nutrition but also employs a large population. Considering their abundance in dietary fiber, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, bananas have a comparatively high nutritional value. Malnutrition affects people especially women and children in developing countries because there is either a lack of access to nutrient-rich food or an imbalanced diet. Vitamin A, iron, zinc, and iodine are the four most common micronutrient deficiencies worldwide. Several agronomic, conventional, transgenic, and genome editing approaches are being utilized for the biofortification of staple crops. They have emerged as cost-effective, complementary, and sustainable way to provide micronutrient-rich crops to every community. However, most of the cultivars of banana are seedless which limits the use of traditional breeding of Musa spp. Therefore, to introduce novel attributes or to regulate metabolites for biofortification in banana, genetic transformation is the only available technique. This chapter summarizes the nutritional aspects of banana, its deficiency, and advancements in biotechnological approaches for their possible role in the development of nutrient-rich banana.