Plant Breeding for Improved Food Quality

More than 850 million people in the world have to struggle hard to meet their daily nutritional requirements.

A far greater number of people suffer from protein, vitamin and micronut rients deficiency or "hidden hunger" because they are unable to afford the required fruits,

vegetables, fish and meat.

The diet, without proper contents of micronutrients like iron, vitamin-A, iodine and zinc, makes the people susceptible to diseases, reduces the average life span

and also reduces mental abilities.

Biofortification

It is a method of breeding crops to increase their nutritional value.

Biofortification differs from ordinary fortification because it focuses on making plant foods more nutritious as the plants are growing, rather than having nutrients added to the foods when they are being processed.

This is an improvement on ordinary fortification when it comes to providing nutrients for the rural poor, who rarely have access to commercially fortified foods.

As such, biofortification is seen as an upcoming strategy for dealing with deficiencies of micronutrients in the developing world.

 There are two main methods:

- Selective breeding

In this method, plant breeders search seed or germplasm banks for existing varieties of crops which are naturally high in nutrients.

They then crossbreed these high-nutrient varieties with highyielding varieties of crops, to provide a seed with high yields and increased nutritional value.

Crops must be bred with sufficient amounts of nutrients to have a measurable positive impact on human health.

They must be developed with the involvement of nutritionists and should have extra nutrients, as storage, processing, and cooking of the food affect their available nutrient levels.

This method is prevalent at present, as it is quicker, cheaper, and less controversial than genetically engineering crops.

Breeding crops with higher levels of vitamins and minerals, or higher protein and healthier fats - is the most practical means to improve public health.

The objectives of breeding for nutritional quality are improvement in protein content and quality, oil content and quality, vitamin content, micronutrient and mineral content.

- Hybrid Maize with almost double the quantity of amino acids like lysine and tryptophan has been developed.

- Wheat variety, Atlas-66, with high protein content, has been used as a donor for improving cultivated wheat.

- Rice variety with five times more iron has been developed.

- Vitamin-A enriched carrots, spinach, pumpkin;

- Vitamin-C enriched bitter gourd, bathua, mustard, tomato;

- iron and calcium enriched spinach;

- protein enriched beans and garden peas

have been developed at Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi.

Genetic modification

Golden rice is an example of a GM crop developed for its nutritional value.

Golden rice contains genes from the soil bacterium Erwinia and either maize or daffodil plants.

These genes inserted in the rice genome produce the enzymes necessary for the synthesis of beta-carotene i.e. provitamin A, which can be converted by the human body into vitamin A.

This can help to overcome disorders due to vitamin A deficiency.

The rural poor commonly consume staple crops such as rice, wheat and maize, which are low in micronutrients.

Increasing the micronutrient levels in staple crops can help prevent and reduce the micronutrient deficiencies.

Biofortification is also fairly cost effective.

After an initial large research investment - where seeds can be distributed,

the "implementation costs [of growing biofortified foods] are nil or negligible", as compared to supplementation, which is expensive and requires continued financing.

Research on this approach is being undertaken internationally, with major efforts ongoing in Brazil, China and India.