Reminds me of golden rice. It was created to solve nutritional deficiencies in about the same populations, but didn't succeed. I hope this initiative does.
Golden Rice isn't a failure, it just hasn't yet been deployed at a large scale. The folks working on it have been making a lot of progress, but it's been slow. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice#Golden_Rice_2)
Sadly, part of the reason why it's been delayed is due to fearmongering by groups like Greenpeace who are ideologically opposed to genetic engineering.
> Sadly, part of the reason why it's been delayed is due to fearmongering by groups like Greenpeace who are ideologically opposed to genetic engineering.
Golden rice had a bunch of patents from over 20 organisations -- putting farmers at risk of licence violation. Pressure from Greenpeace and WHO (and WHO aren't known as a radical anti-GMO org) helped companies like Monsanto declare that they wouldn't be using terminator genes and would allow farmers to collect and sow some of their crop. (But only farmers who earn less than $10,000 per year).
Sadly, part of the reason why it's been delayed is due to fearmongering by groups like Greenpeace who are ideologically opposed to genetic engineering.