Book with abstracts from the COST Action 0905 meeting in ... - UMB

BREEDING CROPS FOR BETTER NUTRITION
Howarth Bouis
CGIAR, USA
Hidden hunger, or micronutrient malnutrition, afflicts more than 2 billion people around the
world. It is caused by a lack of essential vitamins and minerals (such as vitamin A, iron and zinc)
in the diet. Hidden hunger impairs the mental and physical development of children and
adolescents and can result in lower IQ, stunting, and blindness; women and children are
especially vulnerable. It also reduces the productivity of adult men and women due to increased
risk of illness and reduced work capacity.
People who eat large amounts of cheaper staple foods (such as maize or cassava) and low
amounts of more nutritious, but expensive, foods (such as fruits, vegetables, and animal
products) are at greatest risk from hidden hunger.
HarvestPlus leads a global effort to breed and disseminate micronutrient-rich staple food crops to
reduce hidden hunger among malnourished populations. This strategy, called biofortification,
complements dietary diversification, fortification, and supplementation. Biofortification has
three main advantages. First, it is targeted: 75% of the poor in the developing world live in rural
areas where most of them eat large amounts of stale foods daily. Second, it is cost effective: after
an initial investment in breeding micronutrient-rich crops, recurrent costs of improving these
varieties are relatively low as the high-nutrient trait is ‘fixed’ in the crop. And third, it is
sustainable: by improving the nutrient content of the staple foods that poor people already grow
and eat, biofortification provides better nutrition using familiar foods. Farmers can save and
share most micronutrient-rich seeds, roots etc. freely with their neighbors.
For biofortification to be successful high nutrient content must be combined with high yields and
other attributes desired by farmers. Levels of nutrients in the crops, must also be sufficiently high
to improve nutritional status when consumed by target populations. The biofortified crops must
also be adopted by widely adopted by farmers and consumed by those suffering from
micronutrient malnutrition to improve public health.
This presentation provides an overview of progress made in breeding for vitamin A, zinc, and
iron in several staple food crops by HarvestPlus and its partners that are in the delivery pipeline.
Recent advances in genomics, such as marker assisted selection, that have help advanced
breeding will also be discussed.