โ Scribed by Graham, Robin D.
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Five years ago, with international funding, several international agricultural research centers set out to explore the potential to improve the micronutrient quality of some staple food crops. Five objectives were identified, and all needed a favorable result if breeding for higher micronutrient density in the staples were to be deemed feasible. Useful genetic variation to exploit was needed. The traits needed to be manageable in a breeding program (simple screening and high heritability), and stable across a wide range of environments if impact was to be large. Above all, the traits needed to be combinable with traits for high yield to ensure that farmers chose the improved lines. Finally, it was necessary to show that the new types actually improved the health of humans of low nutrient status representing the target populations. The extra nutrients needed to be bioavailable to the gut. Today, only this last essential criterion remains to be fully satisfied. All other criteria are met to levels that lead us to claim that breeding for nutritional quality is a viable, practicable, and cost-effective strategy to complement existing interventionist strategies. Subject to satisfying the last criterion, and results are encouraging, we call for a major funding initiative, and the installation of a new paradigm for 21st century agriculture: one espousing food systems that are highly productive, sustainable, and nutritious. This paper reviews the case for and the rationale behind the project that is underway, gives an overview of the results to date and looks at the critical issues that still remain to be confronted.
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