Despite the fact that the world has achieved adequate food grain production to fight the battle against caloric hunger, still, a significant fraction of population is suffering with deficiency of micronutrients like Fe and Zn. However, the dietary intake of these micronutrients could be sufficient to meet the nutritional demand if the bioavailability was not low due to the strong inhibition by phytic acid and phenolics. Another cause behind inadequate intake is the scarcity of plant-available micronutrients in soil and genetic makeup of plants impeding high accumulation. Postharvest fortification is the major strategy to enrich staple food crops with micronutrients, but biofortification of food crops using breeding and agronomic strategies is also gaining popularity. However, one important issue remained unaddressed as none of them could really increase the plant-available micronutrients like Fe or Zn which otherwise remain insoluble in soil. Microorganisms due to their enormous metabolic diversity are known to be key players in biogeochemical cycling. Their roles in improving the uptake of major nutrients by plants are well-known and understood. Enrichment of edible crops with Fe and Zn can be achieved through microorganisms by any of the three following strategies—(a) increased availability of micronutrients due to microbial activity such as production of acids, chelators, and phytohormones; (b) microbe-mediated modulation of micronutrient transporters; and (c) de-complexation of micronutrients from compounds like phytate through microbial activity during postharvest processing. Microbe-mediated biofortification can potentially complement the agronomic and genetic biofortification of staple crops.

尽管世界上已经实现了足够的粮食生产以对抗热量饥饿的斗争，但仍然有相当一部分人口正遭受着诸如铁和锌等微量营养素缺乏的困扰。但是，如果由于植酸和酚类的强烈抑制而使生物利用度不低，那么这些微量营养素的饮食摄入就足以满足营养需求。摄入不足的另一个原因是土壤中缺乏植物可用的微量营养素，以及阻碍高积累的植物遗传构成。收获后的强化是使主粮作物富含微量营养素的主要策略，但利用育种和农艺策略对粮食作物进行生物强化也越来越受欢迎。然而，一个重要的问题仍然没有解决，因为它们都不能真正增加植物可用的微量营养元素，如铁或锌，否则它们不溶于土壤。微生物由于其巨大的代谢多样性而被公认为是生物地球化学循环中的关键角色。它们在改善植物对主要养分吸收中的作用是众所周知的。可以通过以下三种策略中的任何一种，通过微生物实现可食作物中铁和锌的富集：（a）由于微生物活动（例如酸，螯合剂和植物激素的产生）而增加了微量营养素的利用；（b）微生物介导的微量营养素转运蛋白的调节；（c）收获后加工过程中通过微生物活性从植酸盐等化合物中分离出微量营养素。