It is well documented that zinc supplementation to low-income population results in the reduced incidence of childhood diarrhoea and pneumonia, and improves growth of stunted children. Implementation of large scale programmes are needed for prevention of zinc deficiency in areas where it is common. In Bangladesh, the risk of zinc deficiency is considered to be high and children could benefit greatly by improving their zinc intakes on a daily basis. Zinc supplementation at a national scale would be a formidable task and even if implemented might not be sustainable in the long range. There thus is a need to find an alternative. It might be sustainable to improve intake of zinc through fortified staples, e.g. rice with increased amounts of zinc; in fact such biofortified rice has been developed through conventional breeding, which is designed to contain an amount of zinc that could meet at least 40% of the daily requirement.