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Breeding Biofortified Pearl Millet Cultivars Unlock Millet Markets for Nutrition

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/10838/
 
Title Breeding Biofortified Pearl Millet Cultivars Unlock Millet Markets for Nutrition
 
Creator Govindaraj, M
Kanatti, A
Rai, K N
 
Subject Pearl Millet
Biofortification
Food and Nutrition
 
Description Pearl millet is an important food crop in the arid and semi-arid tropical regions o f Afri ca and Asia.
These regions are home to millions of poor smallholder's households living in harsh agro ecology and
reported higher prevalence of malnutrition. Such poor households have few options in terms of food
crops, besides the limited markets. Indeed, pearl millet is one of the food crops they continue to grow
for their food and nutritional security. Pearl millet is important sources of dietary carbohydrates,
energy, protein, and important minerals such as calcium, iron and zinc. Conside ring inherent
high nutritional values and climate resilient nature (drought and heat), demand for pearl millet as
food, beside valued for its Stover as a source of livestock fodder, is projected to g row strongly in
Asia (India) and Africa (West and Central Afri ca). Iron (cause anemia) and zinc (cause stunting)
deficiencies are widespread and serious publ ic heal th problems worldwide, including Lndia and
Africa. Biofortification is a cost-effective and su stainable agricultural strategy to address this problem.
Research on pearl millet has shown that large genetic variability (30-140 mg!kg Fe and 20-90 mg!
kg Zn) ava ilable in this crop ca n be effectively utilized to develop high-yield in g cul tiva rs with high
iron and zinc densities. Both Open - pollinated varieties (Dhanshakti and Chakti ) and hybrids (ICMH
1202, ICMH 1203 and ICMH 1301) of pea rl millet with high grain yield (>3.5 tons/ha in hybrids) and
high levels of iron (70-75 mg/kg) and zinc (35-40 mg/kg) densities have been developed and released.
Currently, India growing >70,000 ha of biofortified pearl millet, besides more pipeline hybrids and
varieties are under various stage of testing at the national (India) and international (west Africa)
trials for possible release. Genomic tools will be an integral part of breeding program particularly
for nutritional traits to use diagnostic markers and genomic selection. Clinical studies showed that
200g grains from biofortified culti var would provide bioavailable Fe to meet full recommended
daily allowance (RDA) in children, adult men and 80% of the RDA in women. Till today, no markets
to promote biofortified cultivars/grains/products as no incentive price and such products aims to
address food and nutri tional securi ty challenges simultaneously. The demand is likely to increase
only after investment and integration into modern public d istribution system, nutritional intervention
schemes, private seed and food companies with strong mainstreaming nutritional policies. In the
non-traditional regions, this will contribute to livestock and poultry feed industry as spill-over
benefi ts to improve nutrition.
 
Date 2018
 
Type Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/10838/1/Breeding%20Biofortified%20Pearl%20Millet%20Cultivars%20Unlock%20Millet%20Markets%20for%20Nutrition.pdf
Govindaraj, M and Kanatti, A and Rai, K N (2018) Breeding Biofortified Pearl Millet Cultivars Unlock Millet Markets for Nutrition. In: Proceedings of 3rd International Millet Symposium (3rd International Symposium on Broomcorn Millet), August 8-12, 2018, Marriot Inn, Fort Collins, CO, USA.