Better food for an undernourished world

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Better food for an undernourished world

• The Promise and Challenges of Biofortification
• HOWARTH E. BOUIS
• Director
• HarvestPlus

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• BACKGROUND

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Changes in Cereal Pulse Production in
Population 1965 1999
Cereals
Pulses
Population
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SHARE OF ENERGY INTAKE FOR RURAL BANGLADESH
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HarvestPlus Program Strategy

• Develop micronutrient dense staple crops using
  the best traditional breeding practices and
  modern biotechnology to achieve provitamin A,
  iron, and zinc concentrations that can have
  measurable effects on nutritional status

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Biofortification Comparative Advantages and Niche

• Uses agriculture as an instrument to improve
  public health a new tool
• Research at a central location can be leveraged
  across countries and across time therefore,
  highly cost-effective and sustainable.
• Complements other public health interventions by
  starting in rural areas and then reaching into
  urban areas

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• SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

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Commitments to public RD of biofortified crops,
2004-2009

• HarvestPlus Global (48 million)
• Latin Am. Biofortification (12 million)
• India Biofortification ( 3 million)
• Gates Grand Challenge 9
• Sorghum (16.9 million)
• Rice (11.3 million)
• Cassava ( 7.5 million)
• Banana ( 1.1 million)

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Golden Rice can satisfy vitamin A requirements
SGR2
SGR1
1.2 1.8 up to 8.0 up to
36.7 Provitamin A Carotenoid levels (ug/g)
SGR1 and SGR2 were produced by Syngenta and have
been donated to the GR Humanitarian Board.
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Contribution to Vitamin A Intake
200
SGR2
150
Percent of Recommended Vitamin A Intake (WHO/FAO)
Non-staple
100
plant
Animal and
Fish
50
0
Adult Women
Children
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High Iron Rice improves iron levels
p .13
p .032
0.0
-0.9
0.6
p .036
-0.5
1.2
0.1
2.6 6.0 8.7
Source Haas, Beard, Murray-Kolb, del Mundo,
Felix and Gregorio, 2005. Journal of Nutrition
(Forthcoming)
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Beta Carotene Rich Sweetpotato increases
vitamin A status Supervised feeding 125 g x 5
d/wk for 10.5 wk 1030 ?g RAE OFSP vs 0 ?g RAE
WFSP 90 compliance 250 RDA
van Jaarsveld et al, (May 2005) American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition
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• SELECTED CHALLENGES

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Hitting nutritional targets with conventional
plant breeding
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Reaching the end usersthe final challenge
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Pakistan Wheat Area
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Pakistan Variety Area Share, 1997
Source CIMMYT Database
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Pakistan, Peshawar
Advanced Line
Inquilab 91
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Orange Fleshed Sweetpotato
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Reaching End Users
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Farmer adoption and seed systems
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Demand Creation
.
Towards Sustainable Nutrition Improvement in
Rural Mozambique (TSNI), Project Activities
April - September 2004
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Market Development
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Demand Creation
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Interdisciplinary Communication and Cooperation
is Essential

• Plant Breeders
• Molecular Biologists
• Food Technologists
• Human Nutritionists
• Farm Extensionists
• Experts in Food Product Development/Marketing
• Nutrition Communications Experts
• Economists

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• CONCLUSION

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In Conclusion

• Such intimately related subjects as
  agriculture, food, nutrition and health have
  become split up into innumerable rigid and
  self-contained little units, each in the hands of
  some group of specialists. The experts, as their
  studies become concentrated on smaller and
  smaller fragments, soon find themselves
  learning more and more about less and less.
  Everywhere knowledge increases at the expense of
  understanding "

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In Conclusion

• The remedy is to look at the whole field
  covered by crop production,animal husbandry,
  food, nutrition, and health as one related
  subject and then to realize the great principle
  that the birthright of every crop, every animal,
  and every human being is health.

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In Conclusion

• The Soil and Health, 1945
• Sir Albert Howard,
• 1873-1947