Abstract
Micronutrient malnutrition, particularly among women and children, is one of the greatest global challenges of our times and the national Governments and international organizations are following various approaches to combat it. Biofortification—increasing the micronutrient density in edible plant parts by genetic means, is one of the cost-effective and sustainable methods to address micronutrient malnutrition. Sorghum is one of the major staples globally and it meets more than 50% of micronutrient requirements of low-income group populations in predominantly sorghum eating areas. We developed biofortified sorghums with elevated levels of grain Fe and Zn combined with higher grain yield possessing farmer and market-preferred grain and stover traits. The first biofortified sorghum cultivar “Parbhani Shakti” was released in India in 2018, which, besides high Fe and Zn, has higher protein content and lower phytates content. An innovative “Seed Consortium” was built to take this variety to the farmers in the shortest possible time to benefit the farmers and consumers. Multi-stakeholder partnership was the key in this endeavor and Indian NARS, farmers, public sector seed organizations; media and government played a key role along with ICRISAT. We describe this journey and learnings in brief in this chapter.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Atlin GN, Cairns JE, Das B et al (2017) Rapid breeding and varietal replacement are critical to adaptation of cropping systems in the developing world to climate change. Glob Food Secur 12:31–37
Ashok Kumar A, Reddy BVS, Ramaiah B et al (2012) Genetic variability and character association for grain iron and zinc contents in sorghum germplasm accessions and commercial cultivars. Eur J Plant Sci Biotechnol 6(1):66–70
Ashok Kumar A, Reddy BVS, Sahrawat KL (2013) Biofortification for combating micronutrient malnutrition: identification of commercial sorghum cultivars with high grain iron and zinc contents. Indian J Dryland Agric Res Dev 28(1):95–100
Ashok Kumar A, Anuradha K, Ramaiah B et al (2015) Recent advances in sorghum biofortification research. Plant Breed Rev 39:89–124
Carcillo Joseph A, Dean JM, Holubkov R et al (2012) The randomized comparative pediatric critical illness stress-induced immune suppression (CRISIS) prevention trial. Pediatr Crit Care Med 13(2):165
Copenhagen Consensus (2012) The goal of Copenhagen Consensus 2012. https://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/sites/default/files/haiti_priorise_nutrition_-_english.pdf
Gaddameedi A, Phuke RM, Polavarapu KKB et al (2020) Heterosis and combining ability for grain Fe and Zn concentration and agronomic traits in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. J King Saud Univ Sci 32(7):2989–2994
Phuke RM, Anuradha K, Radhika K et al (2017) Genetic variability, genotype × environment interaction, correlation, and GGE biplot analysis for grain iron and zinc concentration and other agronomic traits in RIL population of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench). Front Plant Sci 8:712
Stevens GA, Finucane MM, De-Regil LM et al (2013) Global, regional, and national trends in haemoglobin concentration and prevalence of total and severe anaemia in children and pregnant and non-pregnant women for 1995–2011: a systematic analysis of population-representative data. Lancet Global Health 1(1):e16–e25
Wessels I, Haase H, Engelhardt G, Rink L, Uciechowski P et al (2013) Zinc deficiency induces production of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNFα in promyeloid cells via epigenetic and redox-dependent mechanisms. J Nutr Biochem 24(1):289–297
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by HarvestPlus, Dept of Biotechnology, Govt of India and the CGIAR Trust Fund contributors.
Funding
ICRISAT greatly appreciates the contributions made by all of its funding partners, without which none of our work would be possible.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ashok Kumar, A. et al. (2022). Biofortifying Sorghum for Delivering Grain Micronutrients in High Yielding Cultivars with Market-Preferred Traits. In: Kumar, S., Dikshit, H.K., Mishra, G.P., Singh, A. (eds) Biofortification of Staple Crops. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3280-8_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3280-8_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-3279-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-3280-8
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)