Harvesting Health:

1
Harvesting Health Farming for More Nutritious
Foods Through Agricultural Technologies
HarvestPlus Biofortification Challenge Program
2
Micronutrient Malnutrition

• Affects nearly half the worlds population
• More than 840 million people cannot meet their
  basic daily food and nutritional needs
• About 2 billion people, mostly women and
  children, are at risk from diseases, premature
  death, and lower quality of life linked to
  deficiencies of vitamin A, iodine, and iron

3
Global Prevalence of Iron, Vitamin A and Iodine
Deficiencies
Source USAID
4
What is a CGIAR Challenge Programme?

• New effort to focus the CGIAR on problems of
  global importance
• Address Intractable Problems and New
  Opportunities
• Take advantage of newest innovations for crop
  improvement to take on new challenges
• Not feasible under single stand-alone center
  model
• Stimulate New Partnerships
• Particularly Advanced Research Institution and
  private sector

5
A global initiative supported by the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, World Bank, and
DANIDA
www.harvestplus.org
6
A New Paradigm Agriculture as an instrument for
improving human nutrition

• Improved health can be addressed by changing the
  paradigm for agriculture from that of only
  increasing production to one that marries
  production with improved health in sustainable
  ways.
• Gerald Combs, USDA

7
HarvestPlusBreeding Crops for Better Nutrition

• HarvestPlus seeks to reduce the effects of
  micronutrient malnutrition by using the power of
  plant breeding and genomics to develop food crops
  that are rich in micronutrients, a process called
  Biofortification
• HarvestPlus is a global alliance of research
  institutions coordinated by the International
  Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the
  International Food Policy Research Institute
  (IFPRI)

8
HarvestPlus NOT a silver bullet,but an
additional weapon to fight deficiency
9
HarvestPlus Coverage Potential regional areas of
impact of first phase crops Community-based
efficacy studies in selected target sites
10
Biofortification Baseline

• Useful genetic variation exists in key crops
• Breeding programs can manage nutritional quality
  traits, which for some crops are highly heritable
  and simple to screen for
• Desired traits are sufficiently stable across a
  wide range of growing environments
• Traits for high nutrient content can be combined
  with superior agronomic characteristics and high
  yields

11
HarvestPlus Steps to Impact

• Priority setting to determine areas of nutrient
  defiencies and appropriate approaches
• Breeding for high levels of nutrients in foods in
  the form in which the food is eaten
• Establish that the level of nutrient will have a
  significant impact on the micronutrient status,
  given food consumption patterns
• Implement strategies to reach end users with a
  wide range of partners (formal-informal seed
  systems, NGOs, priviate sector..)

12
Integration of impact studies, nutrition,
breeding, nutritional genomics and reaching end
users

• Nutritional Genomics
• In Vitro and Animal Studies
• Nutritional Breeding Objectives
• Impact and Policy Analysis
• Reaching and Engaging End Users (extension/seed
  systems)
• Communications

13
Integrating nutritional genomics with breeding
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
CG, NARS Industry, NGOs Nutrition
Proof of concept Breeding (markers) and GMO
Nutritional Genomics- CG-private sector
Target Crops
Model Species
Gene Discovery Functional Analysis
Nutritional Genomics
14
Target Nutrients By Breeding Techniques
15
An Alliance is Essential

• University departments of human nutrition
• CGIAR Centers
• USDA-ARS and University of Adelaide
• National Agriculture Research Institutions
• Nutritional Genomics
• Universities crop science departments
• Food technologists
• Private Sector (biotechnology and food industry)
• Seed systems/farmer and consumer acceptance
• NGOs
• Private Sector
• Government extension systems
• Consumer organizations
• Communications experts
• Economists/social scientists

16
Expanding the range of collaborations in the US

• Peter McPherson, President Michigan State
  University, chair of PAC
• Teams receiving HarvestPlus core funding
• Ross Welchs group at the USDA-ARS, Plant Soil
  Nutrition Lab- Cornell
• Dean DellaPenna, Dept of biochemistry and
  molecular biology,Michigan State University
• Michael Grusak, USDA-ARS Children Nutr Res
  Center, Baylor College
• Jere D. Haas Division of Nutritional Sciences,
  Cornell University
• John Beard, Dept of Nutritional Sciences, Penn
  State University
• Don La Bonte, Dept of Horticulture, Louisiana
  State University
• Maize researchers receiving USAID special funding
• Torbert Rocheford, Genetics, University of
  Illinois
• Wendy White, Nutrition, Iowa State University
• Steve Rodermel, Biotechnology, Iowa State
  University
• Discussions with UC Davis, Tuft (nutrition),
  Kansas State (Wheat)
• Interactions with Monsanto, Pioneer-Dupont,
  Syngenta, World Vision, CRS, Helen Keller

17
Strong linkages to National Programs in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America
18
HarvestPlus Delivery-Delivery-Delivery

• Project contributes directly to at least three of
  the Millennium Development Goals
• Eradicate extreme hunger
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• It will require
• Strong product focus
• Well designed RD inputs
• A diet based approach
• Integration of nutrition, breeding, biotech and
  seed systems

19
Thank youHowdy Bouis, Director Kwazi Ampofo,
Reaching endusers Bonnie McClafferty,
Communication Penny Nestel, Nutrition J. V.
Meenakshi, ImpactJoe Tohme, Biotechnology
www.harvestplus.org