DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Four scientists credited with creating food that’s fortified with essential nutrients and vitamins and has helped an estimated 10 million people avoid starvation and disease are the recipients of this year’s World Food Prize. Drs. Maria Andrade, Robert Mwanga, Jan Low and Howarth Bouis were announced Tuesday as the 2016 World Food Prize laureates during a ceremony at the U.S. State Department in Washington.

They are being honored primarily for developing a vitamin A-fortified orange-fleshed sweet potato, which has helped reduce a vitamin deficiency that causes blindness and increased mortality in children in many countries, especially in Africa and Southeast Asia. The World Food Prize was created by Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognize improvements in the quality and availability of food.