Fertiliser specialist Omex is working on the Harvest Plus project, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank, to reduce infant mortality caused by zinc deficiency.

Lack of zinc causes a host of illnesses, including blindness in children, lowering of resistance to disease and stunted growth.

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But after the first year of this three-year project, work carried out by Omex on plant foliage has proved to be the most effective way of increasing zinc levels in wheat, maize and rice grains in poorer parts of the world where these are the staple food.

Group managing director David Featherstone told the Lynn News: "We don't have a zinc problem in this country – but worldwide two billion people suffer from this deficiency and more than 400,000 children a year die before they are five."

He said the Omex group became involved in Harvest Plus through its close working links with Professor Ismail Cakmak, of Sabanci University, near Istanbul in Turkey, who heads up the project and is the leading light on work to improve the amount of zinc in wheat and other cereals.

Trials are currently taking place in countries including China, Thailand, India, Brazil, Taiwan and Mozambique, working through universities there. Results from the first year have been good and the work will be continuing for a further two years.

Micronutrient malnutrition, also known as "hidden hunger", can lower IQ, cause stunting and blindness in children, lower resistance to disease in both children and adults, and significantly increases risks for both mothers and infants during childbirth.

Harvest Plus is concentrating its work on seven key staple crops that will have the greatest impact in alleviating hidden hunger in Asia and Africa – beans, cassava, maize, pearl millet, rice, sweet potato and wheat.

• More pictures of opening of new Omex Agrifluids site at Lynn on page 5 of today's paper.