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The goal of the Africa Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) project is to develop a more nutritious and easily
digestible sorghum that contains increased levels of essential amino acids, especially lysine, increased levels of vitamin A and more available iron and zinc
Dr Mahamadi Ouedraogo stands in an ABS confined field trial (Photo: Pioneer)
KEY ISSUES 85 • CSIR’s role as the African technology recipient 86 The need for multi-cereal R&D 88 • Sorghum research in Africa 90 • • Cost-benefit analysis of biofortification 91 • How biofortification complements other nutritional initiatives 93 • Projected African economic benefit from nutritional enhancement 95 • Projected socio-economic impact of biofortification 96 Impact of biofortification on agronomic productivity 98 • LOOKING FORWARD 99 Phase Two: Building upon success 100 • • An Interview with Dr Zuo-Yu Zhao 101 Development of markets and acceptance 103 • • Future food, feed and industrial utilization 106 Acronyms and abbreviations 109
A head of red sorghum
PROJECT LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT THE ABS CONSORTIUM
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS 51 • Five-year Progress Highlights 52 Project management and coordination 55 • Technology and research 60 • • The world’s first Golden Sorghum 62 Breeding and product development 64 • Regulatory and biosafety 70 • • Communication and issues management strategy 74 • Comprehensive strategy to address geneflow issues 78 • Intellectual property management 82 Capacity building initiatives 83 •
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
THE ABS CONSORTIUM 35 • Specific roles of Consortium members 38 The ABS consortium approach 40 • • Building a truly African project: How ABS overcame language and cultural challenges 46 Interdependency and mutual benefit of consortium members 48 • • Functional groups within the consortium structure 49
KEY ISSUES
ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT 29 • How Pioneer’s prior work formed the basis for the ABS Project 30 • How ABS fits into the Africa Harvest vision 32
LOOKING FORWARD
INTRODUCTION 13 • The malnutrition challenge in Africa 14 • Importance of micronutrient and protein supplementation/ fortification in Africa 16 • Biofortification: a new public health approach 18 • Is biofortification a feasible method of enhancing nutrition delivery? 20 • Why sorghum? 22
Contents
PROJECT LEADERSHIP 1 • Executive Summary 2 Foreword 5 • Technology Achievements 7 • • Thinking Ahead 9 • Excellence in dealing with complexities 11
Citation: Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (AHBFI) 2010. Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010. Nairobi, Kenya: 112 pp. All information in this booklet may be quoted or reproduced, provided the source is properly acknowledged, as cited above. © 2010 Africa Harvest ISBN 978-0-620-48859-4
For further information about Africa Harvest or additional copies of this publication, contact Africa Harvest at: NAIROBI (HQ) 3rd Floor, Whitefield Place, School Lane, Westlands PO Box 642 Village Market 00621 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: + 254 20 444 1113 Fax: + 254 20 444 1121 Email: kenya@africaharvest.org
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Or visit the Africa Harvest website: www.africaharvest.org
Cover: The world’s first golden sorghum (top); making sorghum cookies in Burkina Faso (center); and a woman and her children in their sorghum field (bottom). Compiled by: Daniel Kamanga, Director, Communication for Development Program, Africa Harvest; Editorial Assistance: Silas Obukosia, Biosafety and Regulatory Director, Africa Harvest; Benson Kariuki, Senior Communications Officer, Africa Harvest; and Patience Chatukuta, Communication Consultant; Pictorial Assistance: Mukami Mutiga, IT and Webmaster (Africa Harvest) Editing and design: BluePencil Infodesign, Hyderabad, India • www.bluepencil.in Printing: Pragati Offset Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, India • www.pragati.com
Project Leadership • • • • •
A woman and children stand in a sorghum field
Executive Summary Foreword Technology achievements Thinking ahead Excellence in dealing with complexities
Executive Summary
This report covers the various aspects of Phase I of the Nutritionally Enhanced Sorghum for the Arid and Semi-Arid Tropical Areas of Africa better known as the Africa Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) project. The goal of the project was to develop a more nutritious and easily digestible sorghum that contained increased levels of essential amino acids, especially lysine, and Pro-vitamin A and more iron and zinc. In 2005, Africa Harvest as the grantee organisation in the ABS Project formed a consortium of 11 institutions and was awarded a US$ 21 million grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) phase one research focusing on proof of concept. The project was initiated with transfer of high-lysine sorghum technology from Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business. Initially, the project targeted five African countries: Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt. While the project continues to have links in all these countries, this report covers how, during Phase I, there were different levels of emphasis and engagement, based on the changing dynamics of the project. ABS 2 events in a confined field trial (Photo credit: Pioneer)
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In 2005, Africa Harvest as the lead institution in the ABS project formed a consortium of 11 institutions that was awarded a grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
During the second year (July 2006– June 2007), research work was initiated. The Technology Development Group (TDG) began genetic transformation work and the Product Development Group (PDG) started collecting sorghum germplasm and analyzing sorghum lines. The genetic research work progressed slower than expected, as the transformation rate was poor because of technological limitations. There was also a delay in securing the Intellectual Property (IP) for the Vitamin A trait. However, the other components of the project
were proceeding well, with regular meetings and trainings being conducted as scheduled. A biosafety level-2 greenhouse was also constructed and a large public meeting in South Africa promoted the project amongst government officials and the scientific community in the country. The slower pace of transformation and delays in IP acquisition came in the way of achieving goals. The project milestones and roadmap were revised to factor in the realities experienced during the first two years. During the third year (July 2007–June 2008), the project experienced and survived its first major negative pub-
PROJECT LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
ensuring that the consortium met targets for the first year.
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
In the first project year (July 2005– June 2006), the strategic focus was to lay the foundation for the future work. A roadmap was developed for the next five years. Necessary groundwork structures were put in place across all the research groups,
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An important accomplishment was the product development roadmap that planned all the activities from vector construction to seed distribution of the ABS product
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
At the project’s inception, it was noted that the natural variability of nutritional characteristics or traits within the sorghum family of crops was very limited; genetic transfer by conventional breeding was not feasible, necessitating the use of genetic modification techniques. Further, there was limited information available on sorghum transformation. Also, the techniques used to genetically transform sorghum had an inefficient and low transformation rate and more efficient techniques needed to be developed. The multiple ABS traits needed to be arranged in a compact stack within the sorghum DNA to enhance the integrity of the product development process. In addition, new sorghum markers needed to be developed that could efficiently trace the ABS genes through research and development(R&D).
LOOKING FORWARD
KEY ISSUES
A scientist inspects greenhouse events in KARI
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A grain of golden sorghum
The project also decided to focus on fewer countries. This renewed focus meant the technology development work was likely to be completed within the five years while product development work needed to be funded in a later phase
licity campaign around a permit application in South Africa. In response, the project communication and public acceptance team quickly built up capacity within the project – as well as in key consortium partners – for better issues management. In the meanwhile the other teams made satisfactory progress: the TDG was successful in increasing the transformation efficiency of sorghum; while the PDG produced data on nutrients and digestibility of cooked and processed sorghum foodstuffs as well as conducted field studies on hybridization, out-crossing and gene flow. The project also decided to focus on fewer countries. The renewed focus meant that the technology development work was likely to be completed within the five years while product development work needed to be funded in a later phase. In the fourth project year (July 2008–June 2009), the TDG made a significant breakthrough and generated new IP that increased the efficiency of sorghum transformation. Page 4
New genetic marker was used that was more suitable for the regulatory process. Though the vitamin A research component lagged behind slightly it proceeded well enough. The PDG also started identifying and clearing the field trial sites as well as continuing their field screening for suitable varieties for further development. Further tests for nutritional quality and digestibility revealed that the product was likely to perform as expected. Additionally, field trials of the transgenic varieties had started in the USA as to generate data for the research and regulatory process in Africa. An important accomplishment was the product development roadmap that planned all the activities from vector construction to seed distribution of the ABS product. It indicated that technology development was to be completed at the end of the fifth year thus leading to product development starting in the next phase. In the final project year (July 2009– June 2010), the TDG succeeded in
integrating vitamin A with the other traits, thereby demonstrating the proof of concept – as planned with the BMGF – by producing the world’s first golden sorghum with the full nutrition and digestibility complement. The ABS Project is pursuing phase two project objectives by first sourcing development partners that would support the expanded work to develop sustainable ABS varieties for different sub regions of Africa, and their commercialization. At the end of phase one, ABS project had achieved all milestones and was among projects in GC-9 and GCGH challenged to achieve all the molecular targets including stacking all traits in one locus for phase two product development work. Building on ABS Phase I achievements, ABS Phase II promises more tangible benefits for Africa and purposes to develop and deploy biofortified sorghum to those farmers/end-users in Africa who rely on sorghum as their staple food source.
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
PROJECT LEADERSHIP THE ABS CONSORTIUM
ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
INTRODUCTION
Foreword...........................................Dr Moctar Toure
From the management’s viewpoint, Africa Harvest CEO, Dr. Florence Wambugu, epitomizes good leadership with the unique ability to make “high” science deliver to rural communities.
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Africa Harvest is the kind of institution that is able to move science from the lab to the plate
Africa Harvest’s ambitious vision of being a lead contributor to an Africa free of poverty, hunger and malnutrition requires leadership that can envision the big picture with its feet firmly on the ground; the foundation’s focus has been to move science from the laboratory to the plate. Africa Harvest is not the first organization to appropriate the tools of science and technology to help the Page 5
KEY ISSUES
On behalf of the Board, Management and Staff of Africa Harvest, I would like to begin by sincerely thanking the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) for their faith and commitment in funding Africa Harvest to take the leadership of such a major project. I’d also like to single out Pioneer, for their technological donation, and their continued support in numerous ways, that made this project possible. But the success of the project should, no doubt, be shared by all the ABS consortium members, who have tirelessly worked together, overcoming huge challenges, to achieve outstanding success in a short time. I am proud to say that the project’s leadership was equal to the task, and – based on the projects performance in Phase I – delivered on all agreed milestones.
LOOKING FORWARD
It is less than six months since I was appointed to chair the Africa Harvest Board of Directors. During this span, I have become acquainted with the excellent work that the foundation is involved in. Being a firm believer that leadership is critical to the success of any organization, I have no hesitation in linking Africa Harvest’s current success to past leadership, and in particular, that of the immediate former Chairman, Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, who is now the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Dr Moctar Toure, Chairman of Africa Harvest Board of Directors
poor in Africa achieve food security, economic well-being and sustainable rural development. However, it is unique in being able to drabble with “high science” while remaining connected to those who most need to benefit from it. This uniqueness is a function of leadership.
foundation’s scope. More importantly, we are currently implementing an institutional strategic plan expected to deliver the required growth. This strategy will unlock institutional value and consolidate Africa Harvest as the preferred development partner in Africa.
It is for the above reason, that, I have no doubt that the foundation is well poised to make the ABS Project a success. Its strong culture of meeting international compliance standards demanded by the fast-changing environment in the world of non-profit organizations equips it to do so. I am encouraged by the foundation’s robust organizational structure, financial management and project execution capacity.
My emphasis on Africa Harvest’s leadership and the on-going strategic changes is deliberate, since it will have a major impact on the future of the ABS Project. The Board of Directors sees the project as one that has relevance beyond the scientific realm. The overall goal of Phase II is to develop and deploy biofortified sorghum to those farmers or endusers who rely on sorghum as their staple food source. We know that the project must leverage the success of the last five years and incorporate the nutritional improvements into acceptable open pollinated varieties and hybrids for use by farmers.
We will be implementing two recent Board-commissioned reviews that will bring about critical institutional changes designed to broaden the
These important efforts must be underpinned by a leadership willing to adapt and change, while keeping an eye on the intended beneficiaries. The Board has endorsed a strategy in which Africa Harvest sees itself as a vehicle to deliver improved plant germplasm or improved seeds to resource poor farmers using the whole value chain approach. The foundation has refined this approach over the last decade through the Tissue Culture (TC) Banana and other projects. The approach enhances technology transfer, adoption and acceptance, which leads to increased household food security and income generation for smallholder farmers. The approach will be adopted for the ABS Project. For TC banana, it has resulted in quantifiable and sustainable rural development. We believe the same can be done for the ABS Project!
Gene flow analysis field in Nairobi, Kenya (Photo credit: ICRISAT)
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
In this light, the ABS Project is racing against time as the predicted floods, droughts and natural calamities occur with increasing frequency and magnitude across Africa. The commendable accomplishments of the project have created new technologies and opened new opportunities for further research in sorghum, cowpea, millet and other indigenous crops that can mitigate climate change effects and secure food and nutritional security in Africa and developing countries.
PROJECT LEADERSHIP THE ABS CONSORTIUM ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Dr Marc Albertsen, ABS Principal Investigator
KEY ISSUES
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The commendable accomplishments of the ABS project have created new technologies and opened new opportunities for further research...
LOOKING FORWARD
The significance of the ABS Project extends beyond the nutritional sphere. Most climate related research experts concede that the future climate change effects in Africa will result in more severe drought and to some extent, more floods across all regions. Therefore, agricultural research targeting the African market often aims at improving the droughttolerant characteristics of the more popular cereals such as maize and wheat. By improving the nutrition and digestibility qualities of the naturally drought and water-logging tolerant sorghum, the project offers an intuitive solution, diversification option and alternate strategy that has the potential to ensure future food security for the African continent. Furthermore, the nutritional improvements vastly improve the commercial viability of the crop thus stimulating further private and public sector research.
ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
INTRODUCTION
Technology Achievements.................Dr Marc Albertson
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The world’s first ‘golden sorghum’ transgenics were developed as a result of Phase I support. This variety showed enhanced levels of pro-vitamin A, reduced phytate and an improved protein profile
reduced phytate and an improved protein profile. Provitamin A amounts ranging up to 31.1 µg/g ß-carotene, 30 days after harvesting, are within the range of those obtained from Golden Rice project. studies have 3. Bioavailability shown targeted increased rates of zinc and iron absorption. The ABS Project has completed Phase I (July 2005–June 2010)1 and the specific technological achievements during this span include the following: 1. Optimization and improvement of sorghum transformation systems, leading to a significant increase in the sorghum transformation efficiencies from <0.1% to ~10%. This provides a global opportunity for additional improvement of the crop through genetic engineering. 2. The world’s first “golden sorghum” transgenics were developed as a result of Phase I support. This variety showed enhanced levels of pro-vitamin A, 1. Grand Challenge in Global Health-The Grant Challenges: Goals available at www.grandchallenges.org/Pages/BrowseByGoal.aspx. Accessed January 15, 2010.
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4. ABS has undergone over six field trials in the USA and greenhouse trials in Kenya and South Africa, while applications for confined field trials are underway. 5. Preliminary food product trials have shown that ABS can be used to successfully produce a wide range of traditional African and modern food products. 6. The IP audit for freedom to operate status has been achieved for all the genes used in the ABS Project in all target countries and regions in Africa, confirming freedom to operate. 7. Technology transfer and Capacity building has been undertaken in Pioneer USA for African scientists in partnering institutions from countries of deployment in genetic transformation, throughput breed-
ing, biosafety and regulatory issues in readiness for Phase II. 8. ABS traits have been backcrossed to popular African sorghum varieties and the traits have shown stability in various African varieties, including Marcia, Sima, Tegemeo, KARI Mtama I, Sudanse and Malisor 84-7. 9. By the end of ABS one, the project involved 13 partner and collaborating organizations, with about 70 people involved directly or indirectly, considerable human capacity and infrastructure development has been achieved, strengthening scientific capacity of the target local institutions in Africa. Building on ABS Phase I achievements, ABS Phase II purposes to develop and deploy biofortified sorghum to those farmers/end-users in Africa who rely on sorghum as their staple food source. However, the knowledge and intellectual property, the infrastructural and human capacity, and the technological spinoffs can benefit many other research projects and lead to more products that benefit industrial agro-processors, livestock farmers and several other stakeholders. In essence, the ABS Phase II promises more benefits for Africa.
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
PROJECT LEADERSHIP ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
INTRODUCTION
Thinking Ahead............................Dr Florence Wambugu
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As we conclude the first five years of the ABS phase one focus in phase two of the Project, the leadership has refocused its vision as follows: To develop and deliver locally-adapted seed that produces more nutritious and easily digestible sorghum grain to enhance food security and health for 30 million farmer-consumer households in Africa. In this refined and targeted vision is the desire to develop sorghum varieties containing increased levels of essential amino acids, vitamin A, iron, and zinc for these key sub-regions of Africa, ECOWAS, SADC and Eastern/ Central Africa. There is also the vision of educating farm households
on the use of healthier food products derived from ABS grain, while developing enterprise-driven food products to provide income for small and medium African enterprises. The refined vision paints the future of the ABS Project. It is built on scientific and technological achievements that include the development of the world’s first ‘golden’ sorghum. In five short years, the project has achieved most of its milestones, which include increasing lysine levels by 30-120%, zinc and iron bioavailability by 2030% (through phytate reduction) and no reduction in protein digest-
ibility after cooking compared with uncooked controls. The project achievements outlined above confirm that the primary science is on track although a few refinements may need to be made. Local breeding and adaptation have already commenced, and are on track. During the last five years, over 70 scientists have been involved in the project, and target countries have built local capacity necessary for the next phase of the project. The regulatory and stewardship components have been established and African country-led approaches are in place; Page 9
LOOKING FORWARD
Dr Florence Wambugu, ABS Co-Principal Investigator
KEY ISSUES
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
Based on the fiveyear success, we are confident of even greater success in the future
Dr. Maretha O’Kennedy (left) and Dr. Rachel Chikwamba examine some lab analysis results
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Phase II involves incorporation of traits into locally adapted varieties, developing seed production and dissemination systems, and increasing the productivity through development of hybrids
10 out of 13 institutions in the consortium are African based, backed by full support from National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) and African governments. The project has been instrumental in strengthening NARS biotechnology human infrastructure capacity. Contained field trials are planned for Kenya and Nigeria in 2010 or early 2011. Multiple biosafety containment glasshouse trials with the initial improved nutritional construct were conducted in Kenya and, at the time of writing this report, Burkina Faso was finalizing plans to operationalise its glasshouse. The project has ensured that Africa has 21st century scientific capacity. At least 12 African scientists and breeders have been trained at Pioneer, while various aspects of sorghum transformation and field trials are underway. An African-led
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biosafety regulatory capacity strategy has been developed to support NARS in policy framework development. Project partners have received support in communication capacity building and public acceptance, to ensure that principles and best practices are implemented.
tions related to science and regulatory or stewardship concerns.
The strong commitment and support from Pioneer, the key technology donor ensures that the project’s future is bright. The fact that consortium members believe strongly in the ABS’s success, will ensure success in sourcing development partners for phase II.
Phase II also involves the incorporation of traits into locally adapted varieties, developing seed production and dissemination systems, and increasing the productivity through development of hybrids. Farmer and household education programs for adoption of seed and grain, developing food and beverage products derived from ABS products and addressing gaps and bottlenecks to the sorghum value chain will help link the final product to the market.
The project’s immediate future dictates a step-wise approach to achieve its goals. This involves the development and deployment of the final trait stack for improved digestibility, enhanced levels of pro-vitamin A and increased bio-availability of iron and zinc. Success will require that the project address any emerging ques-
Based on the five-year success, we are confident of even greater success in the future. We are excited at the prospect of working with new development partners, not merely to broaden our funding base, but also for the diversity of ideas and knowledge that this will bring helping us unlock the full value of this landmark project.
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
The ABS External Advisory Board (EAB) was established in 2006 with the objective of providing independent scientific advice to the project. Board members are international experts with extensive experience in diverse areas such as sorghum breeding and biology, biotechnology, nutrition, agriculture, food and development economics, and regulatory affairs. Having reviewed ABS’s efforts for the last four years, I can firmly state that this is an outstanding project: the scientific achievements within the project have been very impressive indeed! Nearly a dozen African researchers have been trained at Pioneer, and have returned with critical knowledge that benefits research teams in their home laboratories. This creates a sense of ownership in the African partner institutions and countries. This is essential for the success and sustainability of such development projects. Thus, beyond the scientific or technological benefits, the project has already contributed to human and infrastructural capacity building and
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Having reviewed ABS’s efforts for the last four years, I can firmly state that this is an outstanding project: the scientific achievements within the project have been very impressive indeed!
African regulatory confidence and issuance of permits for ABS trials: The delay in obtaining a permit for the first ABS greenhouse trial in South Africa fuelled the notion that it is generally difficult to get approval for genetically modified (GM) permits in Africa. Yet, as experience from other countries shows, regulatory aspects are a learning process for all parties involved, including the regulators themselves. The ABS Project has made good progress in building regulatory confidence; permits have Page 11
PROJECT LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT THE ABS CONSORTIUM
Prof Matin Qaim, Chairman of the ABS External Advisory Board
The ecological neutrality of gene flow: As some parts of Africa belong to the centre of biodiversity for sorghum, there are wild relatives to which the transgenes of ABS varieties may outcross. The project consortium has seriously discussed this fact for several years. Yet the issue is not whether genes flow, but whether the newly introduced genes and traits could have a negative impact on biodiversity. In consultation with BMGF, a panel of high-ranking international gene-flow experts was formed in 2009. The panel analyzed the issue in detail and concluded that ABS genes will be selectively neutral with no negative effect on the environment. They also advised that follow-up studies be undertaken to confirm this conclusion. These follow-up studies are currently underway under the supervision of the Donald Danforth Plant Centre’s Biosafety Resource Network (BRN).
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
I would like to showcase the extraordinary skill with which the project has dealt with several complexities:
KEY ISSUES
upgrading of national innovation systems in Africa. From the EAB viewpoint, the ABS Project has not only met all the milestones set for the first five years of the project, but has also exceeded our expectations of what can be achieved in such a scientifically and institutionally complex project within a very short period of time.
LOOKING FORWARD
Excellence in dealing with complexities..............................Prof Matin Qaim
been obtained in both South Africa and Kenya and is likely to be obtained in Nigeria and Burkina Faso too. In Kenya, a permit application for ABS greenhouse studies was approved in a record time of five months, and the materials are now in the glasshouse. At the time of writing this report, an ABS application for a confined field trial (CFT) was being processed by the Kenyan authorities. In Nigeria and Burkina Faso – the ABS partner organizations, the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) and INERA respectively – have already identified the sites for the CFT. The experiments are expected to start in late 2010 or the following year. It is also noteworthy that, thanks to the early involvement of local partners, there is strong political support for ABS in all the target countries. Burkina Faso, Kenya, and South Africa already have Biosafety Acts, while Nigeria’s Biosafety Bill is being debated for possible passage into law. While the ABS target countries allow GM research, the project believes that by the time ABS products are ready for commercialization, most African countries will have the required legislation. Current regulatory and public perceptions bode well for further ABS technology development and deployment. Gene stacking is the way forward for future generations of GM crops: Concerns were raised that stacked gene constructs, such as those used by the ABS Project, may be hard to deregulate. This is an aspect that has been repeatedly discussed by the ABS consortium in consultation with the EAB. It has also been discussed with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulatory authorities. After careful deliberation, the strong consensus was that gene stacking – when technically possible – is the most reasonable approach as it will be much cheaper in terms of future regulatory costs. It should be noted that several events with stacked genes have already been deregulated in the USA and elsewhere, including a three-stacked product in South Africa. Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences are currently developing a GM maize technology with eight stacked genes, which is likely
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Ex-ante impact studies carried out by HarvestPlus for the ABS Project and BioCassava Plus (BC+) concluded that both projects are cost-effective in terms of generating nutritional and health benefits in target populations
to be commercialized soon. There are numerous other examples, including public sector organizations. Hence, gene stacking is clearly the way forward for new generation biotechnology products. Adoption of modern sorghum varieties varies regionally and wider adoption can be spurred through innovative delivery strategies: Concerns were raised that modern varieties of sorghum are not widely adopted, which might lead to limited future coverage of the ABS technology. This notion partly builds on a recent study by the Evans School Policy Analysis and Research Group (EPAR) at the University of Washington, which reviewed the literature and cited one publication stating that the aggregate adoption of improved sorghum varieties in the whole of SubSaharan Africa is only around 1%. This number seems underestimated and is definitely misleading. An ABS review of scientifically published articles shows that adoption rates of improved sorghum varieties vary widely across countries and regions. For instance, in South Africa, the rate is over 70%; in several other countries of southern Africa it is estimated at 30–40%; while in some areas of West Africa it is 20–30%. But regardless of what the current rates of adoption are, these should not be over-interpreted with respect to future ABS variety uptake. In addition to limited awareness among farmers, one of the main reasons for the relatively low adoption of not only improved varieties of sorghum, but also of maize and other crops is the malfunctioning of seed markets
in Africa. In fact, this has been recognized as a constraint by the ABS consortium from the beginning, and special technology delivery strategies are being developed. Africa Harvest, the consortium’s lead organization, has proven success in delivering modern agricultural technologies to smallholder farmers through innovative institutional models – experience that the ABS Project can build on. The project will generate nutritional benefits in a cost-effective way: Ex-ante impact studies were carried out by HarvestPlus for the ABS Project and BioCassava Plus (BC+), concluding that both projects are cost-effective in terms of generating nutritional and health benefits in target populations. These results indicate that further investment in these projects is worthwhile from an economic and social perspective since both crops are important food security crops in Africa, and grow under different agro-ecological conditions. The crops target different population segments and are complementary in the fight against malnutrition. Given Africa’s diversity of staple food crops, there is no single crop that can be expected to solve the nutritional problem. In conclusion, the EAB believes that the ABS Project serves as a model for agricultural technology development for Africa, and is an exemplary case of thriving public-private sector and North-South partnership. It is an excellent investment worthy of ongoing and future support! Prof Matin Qaim Out-going Chair of the ABS External Advisory Board
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
• Importance of micronutrient and protein supplementation in Africa • Biofortification: A new public health approach • Is biofortification a feasible method of enhancing nutrition delivery? • Why sorghum?
A woman stands in a sorghum field
Introduction
• The malnutrition challenge in Africa
The malnutrition challenge in Africa
Micronutrient deficiencies are now recognized as an important contributor to the global burden of disease.2 About onethird of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is chronically undernourished. Women and children, particularly, suffer from inadequate intake of vitamins and minerals. At least 40% of the region’s children have iron deficiency and nearly half of those under six years do not get enough vitamin A. In children, micronutrient deficiency leads to reduced resistance to infectious diseases, stunted growth and difficulty in concentrating. 4 Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is endemic throughout Africa, and is the leading cause of childhood preventable blindness, and contributes to the risk of morbidity and mortality from infectious disease in children and pregnant women. Iron deficiency, with and without anemia, may be the “most prevalent micronutrient deficiency in emergencies” as foods containing readily absorbed haem iron are seldom part of cereal-based food aid diets, and iron is not readily bioavailable in many cereal-based diets if phytate and fiber content is high. Few studies directly assess iron deficiency per se. Zinc deficiency is assumed to be widespread in areas where diets lack diversity. An estimated 20% of the world’s population is at risk for zinc deficiency, with higher risk for deficiency (34.6%) in sub-Saharan Africa. Risk for zinc deficiency is likely to be high in pregnant women in developing countries, as typical diets often supply inadequate bioavailable zinc.3 Deficiencies of the ABS target micronutrients in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt are discussed in more detail below. Percentage of global deaths attributable to malnourishment and disease
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In children, micronutrient deficiency leads to reduced resistance to infectious diseases, stunted growth and difficulty in concentrating
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Egypt VAD among preschoolers and their mothers is considered to be a subclinical, mild-to-moderate, public health problem.17 The prevalence of anemia in women of childbearing age is 11% and among pregnant women is 26%. One in four children aged 6–59 months has iron-deficiency anemia. One of the earliest reports of zinc deficiency came from Egypt in 1963.18 A study of pregnant women in Egypt in 1982 reported that most of the 42 women studied had a zinc intake of less than two-
thirds of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA).19 Protein malnutrition is the commonest form of nutritional deficiency in poor infants and children.20 In Egypt, the incidence of protein malnutrition was found to be 16.45%.21
Kenya
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
A study found that anemia was present in 46% of the adolescents in Kenya. In addition, 43% of them had iron deficiency. Fifteen percent of the adolescents had VAD. The prevalence of moderate anemia was 54%, while almost 70% of pregnant women were anemic.7 In another survey, the proportion of children with low serum zinc was 50.8%.9
PROJECT LEADERSHIP
No fewer than 80,000 Nigerian children are prone to die annually from Vitamin A deficiency related ailments
INTRODUCTION
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ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
According to the 2003 Demographic and Health Survey, 42% of the rural children and 20% of the urban children in Burkina Faso are undernourished. Thirty-nine percent of them suffer from stunting (reduced height for age, an indicator of chronic malnutrition), and 19% from wasting (reduced weight for height, an indicator for temporary malnutrition).1 According to a 2006 Hellen Keller International study, 40% of school children are anemic and the estimated prevalence of VAD among pre-school children is 46%.5 Iron deficiency affects 92% of children under five, while more than 40% of the pregnant women have haemoglobin rates below the average. Around 60% suffer from moderate anemia, while 13% have severe anemia. Children aged between six months and two years are the most affected by iron deficiency, probably because they do not receive adequate supplementary feeding. The rate of night blindness – a disease caused by VAD – is over 1%.6
in Nigeria. In a study by Maziya-Dixon et al (2004), iron deficiency was highest in the urban areas (27.8%), followed by the medium (23.0%) and rural (18.7%) areas.13 At the national level, 20% of the children under 5 are zinc deficient.14 Zinc deficiency was highest in pregnant women (43.8%). One-quarter (28.1%) of the mothers were found to be zinc deficient.15 The prevalence of protein energy malnutrition among the children was 41.6% in rural areas.16
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
Burkina Faso
KEY ISSUES
The most pressing form of malnutrition in Kenya is protein-energy malnutrition, which largely affects infants, preschool, and school children.8
Nigeria LOOKING FORWARD
In a study published in 2001, the national prevalence of night blindness was 1.1%, the national prevalence of marginal VAD was 28.1% and severe retinol deficiency was 7.0%.10 No fewer than 80,000 Nigerian children die annually from VAD-related ailments.11 A 2006 study found that the distribution of VAD in children less than five years was 25.6% in the rural area, 32.6% in the medium, and 25.9% in the urban areas.12 Iron deficiency is also a public health problem Page 15
Importance of micronutrient and protein supplementation/fortification in Africa
A scientist at work in the lab
Hunger and malnutrition kill nearly 6 million children a year, and sub-Saharan Africa has more malnourished people in this decade than in the 1990s, according to a report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).22 Underweight and micronutrient deficiencies account for an estimated 25% of the burden of disease.23 Many children die from a handful of treatable infectious diseases like diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria and measles. They would survive if their bodies and immune systems had not been weakened by malnutrition. Providing them with adequate food is crucial for breaking the poverty and hunger cycle and for meeting the Millennium Development Goals.22 Adding just a few grams of vitamins and minerals per ton to maize meal, wheat flour, sugar, oil and salt is one of the most effective and sustainable ways to improve nutrition.26 Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, working with the Ministry of Health of Zanzibar, found that iron supplementation improved motor and language development in rural African preschoolers.24 In Africa, some thirty-six countries routinely fortify salt with iodine, and several of these, including Benin, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, have achieved high rates of salt iodization. Over 70% of all new-born babies are now protected from brain damage due to iodine deficiency.25
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Protein malnutrition is the commonest form of nutritional deficiency found in infants and children in poor sectors of the Egyptian population Page 16
Introduction
Proportion of deaths due to undernutrition relative to deaths due to communicable diseases
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
The cases discussed above clearly show that supplementation and fortification can drive a huge improvement in nutrition of African people, especially in compromised mothers and children. However, there is need to increase coverage and bioavailability of the nutrients for it to have greater impact.
4. School kids and street food. Spotlight. Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department. FAO. www.fao.org/Ag/ magazine/0702sp1.htm 5. Burkina Faso. Hellen Keller International. www.hki.org/working-worldwide/africa/ burkina-faso/ 6. Improving the nutritional situation of children in Burkina Faso. UNICEF. www. unicef.org/bfa/english/health_nutrition. html 7. Woodruff BA. 2006. Anaemia, iron status and Vitamin A deficiency among adolescent refugees in Kenya and Nepal. Public Health Nutrition. 2006.9:26-34 Cambridge Journals. Cambridge University Press. www.journals.cambridge.org/ action/ 8. Ngare DK and Muttanga JN. 1999. Prevalence of malnutrition in Kenya. East African Medical Journal. July 1999. 76(7):376-380 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/ 9. Bwibo NO and Neumann CG. 2003. The need for animal source foods by Kenyan children. The Journal of Nutrition. 133:3936S-3940S. November 2003. www.jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/ full/133/11/39366S 10. Ajaiyeuba AI. 2001. Vitamin A deficiency in Nigerian children. African Journal of Biomedical Research. 2001: Vol 4; 107110 www.ajol.info/index.php/ajbr/article/ viewFile/ 11. Duru P. 2010. 80,000 children may die of Vitamin A deficiency. Vanguard. March 9, 2010. www.allafrica.com/stories/ 12. Maziya-Dixon BB et al. 2006. Vitamin A deficiency is prevalent in children less than 5 years of age in Nigeria. The Journal of Nutrition. August 2006. 136:2255-2261. www.jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/136/8/2255 13. Maziya-Dixon et al. 2004. Iron status of children under 5 in Nigeria. Results of the Nigeria Food Consumption and Nutrition Survey. Proceedings of Iron deficiency in early life and challenges and progress.
17. Egypt. FAO Country Profiles. Nutrition and Consumer Protection. www.fao.org/ ag/agn/nutrition/egy_en.stm 18. Salimi S et al. 2004. Study of zinc deficiency in pregnant women. Iranian Journal of Public Health. 204, 33(3):15-18. www.diglib.tums.ac.ir/pub/magmng/ pdf/135.pdf 19. Aoyama A. 1994. Toward a virtuous cycle: A nutrition review of the Middle East and North Africa. Health and Population Series. Human Development Network. 20. Fleita D. 1997. Studies on protein-calorie malnutrition in Egypt. www.oai.dtic.mil/ oai/ 21. El-Hodhod MAA et al. 2005. Apoptotic changes in lymphocytes of protein-energy malnutrition. Nutrition Research. Vol. 25, Issue 1 pp 21-29. January 2005. www. nrjournal.com/article/ 22. The State of Food Insecurity in the World. 2005. Eradicating world hunger – key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. FAO Corporate Document Repository. www.fao.org/docrep/008 23. Hampshire RD et al. 2003. Delivery of nutrition services in health systems in subSaharan Africa: Opportunities in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Niger. Hellen Keller International – Africa Nutrition in Development Series. N3. October 2003 24. Iron supplements help African children learn to walk and talk. Public Health News Centre. December 15, 2001. John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/ press_releases/PR_2001/ 25. Introduction to fortification in Africa. www.fortaf.org/introfort.htm 26. Gnagbe LN. 2006. Food fortification in Africa: A strategy to eradicate vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Innovations Report. www.innovations-report.com/html/ 27. Fortified flour and chewing gum – New approaches to malnutrition. IRIN. www. allafrica.com/stories/
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PROJECT LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION
16. Abidoye RO and Sikabofori. 2000. A study of prevalence of protein-energy malnutrition among 0-5 years in rural Benue state, Nigeria. Nutrition and Health. 2000. Vol. 13, No. 4 pp 235-247. www.cat.inist.fr/
ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
3. Natalie D and Neumann CG. 2009. Micronutrient deficiencies in food aid beneficiaries: A review of seven African countries. African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development. June 2009. www.findarticles.com/p/articles/
15. Maziya-Dixon et al. 2004. Food consumption and nutrition survey. 2001-2003 Summary. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. Ibadan, Nigeria. www.iita. org/cms/details/NFC.pdf
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
2. Fuglie LJ. The Moringa Tree. A Local Solution to Malnutrition? Dakar, Senegal. www.moringanews.org/documents/Nutrition.pdf
14. Ugwuja et al. 2010. Plasma copper and zinc among pregnant women in Abakaliki, Southeastern Nigeria. The Internet Journal of Nutrition and Wellness. 2010 Vol. 10 No. 1. www.ispub.com/journal/
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Current systems of providing the vitamin through supplements often miss out on some target groups. Kenya, for example, achieved coverage rates of above 80% for vitamin A twice a year in 1996 using mobile immunization campaigns.28 By 2007, coverage had declined to 20% for 6–59-month-old children. Global zinc supplementation to reduce the impact of diarrhea is low, yet it could reduce diarrheal mortality for children under five by 50%.27
1. Birner et al. 2007. Biofortified foods and crops in West Africa: Mali and Burkina Faso. AgBioForum, 10(3):192-200. www. agbioforum.org
Lima, Peru. November 18, 2004. Abstract th 98, p 43. www.ars.usda.gov/research
KEY ISSUES
A 2007 study found a significant decline in birth defects as a result of the fortification programme, with reductions in spina bifida and anencephaly by 41.6% and 10.9%, respectively. A separate study found a 66% reduction in prenatal deaths related to neural tube defects, and a 39% reduction in NTD-related infant mortality. (Neural tube defect is a major birth defect caused by abnormal development of the neural tube, the structure present during embryonic life which gives rise to the central nervous system, the brain and spinal cord). The decrease in birth defects found in South Africa is consistent with decreases observed in other countries that have fortified their food supplies. By comparing the cost of fortification against the cost of treating birth defects avoided by fortification, there was a benefit: cost ratio of approximately 30:1, again indicating that micronutrient fortification is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions.30
End notes
LOOKING FORWARD
Wheat flour, maize flour, oil and sugar fortification (with iron, folate, B vitamins and/or vitamin A) has already started in countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia. With the exception of South Africa, Nigeria and Zambia, where food fortification of selected foods is mandatory, fortification is done on a voluntary basis by pioneering companies.25
Biofortification: a new public health approach
Burkinabe women work in a production line at a sorgum biscuit-making factory
Crop biofortification is the development of micronutrient-dense staple crops using the best traditional breeding practices and modern biotechnology. Agricultural research institutions employ this strategy to genetically modify crops to enhance levels of essential micronutrients. This strategy also capitalizes on the regular daily intake of a consistent and large amount of food staples by all family members.3, 5 Biofortification requires that agricultural research make direct linkages with the human health and nutrition sectors. Application of novel advances in biotechnology, genomics, genetics, and molecular biology is required to identify and understand plant biosynthetic genes and pathways of nutritional importance, including those for nutrient absorption enhancers and inhibitors, as breeding for these may also be a viable option.3
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and, subsequently, to humans, without changing consumption patterns of traditional crop staples. The main methods for biofortification include: increasing the mineral and vitamin content in food plants via conventional selective breeding techniques; reducing levels of anti-nutrients in food staples that inhibit the absorption and bioavailability of nutrients; and increasing levels of compounds that promote the bioavailability of nutrients.6 Senator Daschle (USA) and his entourage tour the KARI greenhouse containing ABS events
Crop biofortification is the development of micronutrientdense staple crops using the best traditional breeding practices and modern biotechnology
Biofortified plants have the potential to nourish nutrient-depleted soils; help increase crop yields per acre; and provide nutritional benefits to plants, humans, and livestock. The main underlying assumption for this strategy holds that there can be an increase in nutrient accumulation to plants Page 18
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
According to HarvestPlus, poor people in developing countries will cope with rising food prices by consuming smaller portions of nutritious meats, vegetables, dairy and pulses; and by reducing expenditure on non-food items such as housing, education and medical care. Already, non-staple foods comprise 40% to 60% of the total expenditure on food by poor consumers. Their current intake of micronutrients is already very low, resulting in high prevalence rates of
PROJECT LEADERSHIP
2. Bouis H. Rising food prices will result in severe declines in mineral and vitamin intakes of the poor. HarvestPlus 2008. www.harvestplus.org/sites/default/ files/2008HBouisfoodprices.pdf 3. Nestel et al. 2006. Biofortification of staple food crops. Symposium: food fortification in developing countries. The Journal of Nutrition. 136:1064-1067. American Society for Nutrition. April 2006. 4. Biofortified crops for improved human nutrition. A challenge program proposal by CIAT and IFPRI. 2 September 2002. www.cgiar.org/pdf/biofortification.pdf 5. Panopio JA. 2010. Crop biofortification, key to achieving Millennium Development Goals. Checkbiotech. 27 January 2010. www.greenbio.checkbiotech.org/news/ 6. Campos-bowers MH. 2007. Biofortification in China: policy and practice. Health Research Policy and Systems. www.healthpolicy-systems.com/contents/5/1/10
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Six out of the eight objectives in the Millennium Development Goals are related to micronutrient deficiency... Page 19
ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
INTRODUCTION
Six out of the eight objectives in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are related to micronutrient deficiency. Together with conventional interventions, such as supplementation and industrial fortification, biofortification of crops with essential micronutrients could greatly contribute in achieving the MDGs.5
1. World’s top economists say biofortification is one of top five solutions to global challenges. HarvestPlus. 2 June 2008. www.harvestplus.org/content/
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
Biofortified crops do not need to provide the entire RDA to be effective in substantially reducing micronutrient deficiencies. Consider a future scenario in which iron-biofortified crops are being consumed by 25% of the population in developing countries and where anemia prevalence falls by 10% among the consuming populations. More than 100 million cases of iron-deficiency could be averted each year.8
End notes
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
micronutrient deficiencies. Absence of biofortification combined with food price increase, will reduce micronutrient intake even further.2
KEY ISSUES
The Copenhagen Consensus 2008 panel of economists selected biofortification, the breeding of food crops with higher nutritional value, as one of its top five solutions to global challenges. The panel recognized that the potential of a relatively small dollar investment to improve the nutrition of hundreds of millions of poor people through biofortification is enormous. As food prices continue to rise, and people are forced to reduce their food consumption, micronutrient malnutrition will increase. Biofortification then becomes all the more important as a strategy to improve nutrition and health.1
Dr. Peggy Lemaux (left) and Prof. Bob Buchanan (right) examine sorghum plants in a greenhouse (Photo Credit: University of California Berkeley)
LOOKING FORWARD
By producing staple foods that are denser in bioavailable minerals and vitamins, scientists can provide farmers with crop varieties that naturally reduce anemia, cognitive impairment, and other nutritionally related health problems. Biofortification can provide an additional instrument in the fight to reduce micronutrient malnutrition – one that uses food as a mechanism to improve human health. It complements existing strategies and has its own unique “niche” and technical characteristics, most importantly the level of the “dose” that it can be expected to provide. Thus, nutritionally improved varieties would reach into relatively remote rural areas not presently well covered by commercial fortification and supplementation programs.4 Since staple foods predominate in the diets of the poor, this strategy implicitly targets low-income households. Biofortification thus provides a feasible means of reaching undernourished populations in relatively remote rural areas, delivering naturally fortified foods to people with limited access to commercially marketed fortified foods that are more readily available in urban areas.3
Is biofortification a feasible method of enhancing nutrition delivery?
Part of a sorghum head that has been prepared for lab analysis
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The first breakthrough in the development of a prototype Golden Rice was obtained in 1999
A wide number of crop biofortification projects have been conducted or are currently underway all over the world. The success in achieving the desired traits has galvanized the scientists involved to keep working towards the commercialization of the transgenic varieties. A few biofortification success stories are discussed below. Golden Rice is a genetically modified rice with elevated levels of β-carotene—the precursor for vitamin A. The Golden Rice technology is based on a simple principle. All but two steps of the β-carotene biosynthetic pathway are present in the grain. By addition of only two genes, the pathway is reconstituted, which leads to the production and accumulation of β-carotene in the grains. The intensity of the golden color is an indicator of the concentration of β-carotene in the endosperm.1 The first breakthrough in the development of a prototype Golden Rice was obtained in 1999. It proved that β-carotene could be produced in rice Page 20
grain. With the proof of concept in hand, the scientists immediately proceeded to develop ways of improving the production and accumulation of carotenoids in the seed, as it was recognized that to combat vitamin A deficiency more efficiently, higher β-carotene accumulation levels would be required.1
the stably labeled β-carotene from Golden Rice was absorbed intact into the intestinal tract. This result confirmed the potential for a much more advantageous bioconversion rate than achieved from any other known crop-based source of carotene.2
The RDA of vitamin A for 1-3 yearold children is 300µg. Based on a retinol equivalency ratio for β-carotene of 12:1; 72g of the new-generation Golden Rice would provide half the required RDA. This is compatible with rice consumption levels in target countries, which lie at 100-200 g of rice per child per day.1
The novel trait has been transferred into several Indica rice varieties, and "regulatory clean" events have been selected to facilitate the processing through the deregulatory process. Development of locally adapted Golden Rice varieties as well as application to national bio-regulatory authorities for field testing and deregulation is in the hands of national and international public rice research institutions. Golden Rice is still awaiting permission for the first small-scale field release, in which environmental risks have to be studied experimentally. All a farmer needs to benefit from the technology is one seed!3
In June 2009, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Tufts University found that, after consumption,
HarvestPlus’s research on cassava emphasizes developing genotypes with high concentrations of Provi-
These efforts led to the development of the first generation of the Golden Rice variety. Lines were obtained that accumulated up to 31µg/g is β-carotene, as compared with the first generation variety, where only 1.6µg/g was obtained.
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties that are naturally rich in ß-carotene can be an excellent source of provitamin A and offer one more example of the nutritional benefit made possible by biofortification. A randomized controlled study showed that feeding ß-carotene-rich sweet potato, which provided about 830µg RAE/100 g cooked root, to primary school children improved vitamin A liver stores.3 To prove the hypothesis that highiron rice can improve the iron count
End notes
PROJECT LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
Like most Africans, Ugandans eat white sweet potato. However, biofortified sweet potato – as foods rich in vitamin A tend to be – is orange. It is also sweeter and has a softer consistency. Farmers and consumers had to be convinced that eating a nutritionally improved sweet potato that has a different color, taste and consistency is better for them.6
The commercialization of the abovementioned biofortified crops has been hampered by the precautionary principle – a system used by governments to regulate GM organisms. Extreme precautionary regulation has prevented the use of biofortified crops so far and ignores the potential benefits of utilizing this technology.3
1. Golden Rice is part of the solution. www. goldenrice.org/ 2. Researchers determine that Golden Rice is an effective source of vitamin A. American Society for Nutrition. www.goldenrice. org/PDFs/ASNonGR.pdf Accessed 13 October 2010-10-13. 3. Potrykus I. 2004. Experience from the humanitarian Golden Rice project: Extreme precautionary regulation prevents the use of green biotechnology in public projects. BioVision, Alexandria. 03-06 April 2004. AgBioWorld. www.agbioworld.org 4. Provitamin A Cassava for D R Congo. HarvestPlus. www.harvestplus.org Accessed 22 June 2010 5. Researchers team up to provide new hope for childhood hunger. Physorg.com. 28 July 2009. www.physorg.com/ 6. New crops tackle hidden hunger. CTA Spore No. 138. Winter, 2008. www. spore.cta.int/
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
With support from the Gates Foundation's Global Challenges Program, the Danforth Plant Center’s cassava bio-fortification efforts have met or exceeded all targets, increasing betacarotene level by 30 times, protein level by 10 times, and iron levels by 40 times. Scientists are preparing to field-test improved cassava varieties in Kenya and Nigeria during the next five years. Through the efforts of the Danforth Plant Center and its collaborators, the improved varieties could be widely available in Africa within the next 10 years, improving surviv-
In Uganda and Mozambique, scientists have succeeded in breeding several new orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties biofortified with vitamin A. A recent study in Mozambique showed that a program to introduce biofortified sweet potato resulted in improved vitamin A status among young children. This is important because in regions of Mozambique and Uganda where vitamin A deficiency is widespread, people eat sweet potato just about every day. Capitalizing on a familiar food is an ideal way to add extra nutrients to a diet.6
in women of reproductive age, a double-blind intervention study was carried out in the Philippines. Undermilled iron-enhanced rice, which provided an additional 1.41 mg of iron/d, representing a 17% increase in dietary iron in the diets of these women, was efficacious in improving serum ferritin concentrations and body iron levels in non-anemic subjects compared with the locally used rice.3
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
BioCassava Plus is an international initiative seeking to make cassava a more nutritionally rich and balanced staple plant crop. The project has demonstrated unprecedented success in enhancing cassava to contain more protein, vitamins and minerals, more robust plant virus resistance, delayed post-harvest deterioration and reduced cyanide content. Farmerpreferred varieties are being collected and analyzed.5
al-rates and quality of life for millions of children and families that would otherwise suffer malnutrition.5
KEY ISSUES
tamin A carotenoids in the roots of agronomically superior varieties. A less extensive research program focuses on breeding for high iron and zinc content. In germplasm screening, roots have exhibited 4.8μg/g β-carotene in yellow cassava clones. Research is still being conducted to determine the retention of the β-carotene in yellow cassava roots after processing. The projected release year for HarvestPlus’s biofortified varieties is 2012; and the estimated biofortification contribution to mean daily vitamin A requirement is 50% if eaten daily.4
LOOKING FORWARD
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In Uganda and Mozambique, scientists have succeeded in breeding several new orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties biofortified with vitamin A
Page 21
Why sorghum?
Sorghum plants in a field
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...numerous sorghum species are used for food (as grain and in sorghum syrup or sorghum molasses), fodder, the production of alcoholic beverages, and as biofuels
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Sorghum is an important food crop in Africa, Central America, and South Asia, and the "fifth most important cereal crop grown in the worldâ&#x20AC;?. Numerous Sorghum species are used for food (as grain and in sorghum syrup or sorghum molasses), fodder, the production of alcoholic beverages, and as biofuels. Most species are drought-tolerant and heat-tolerant, and are especially important in arid regions where the grain is a staple for poor and rural people.1
Chemistry of sorghum Sorghum bran is low in protein and ash and rich in fiber components. The endocarp lies underneath the testa layer or seed-coat. In some genotypes, the testa is highly pigmented. The testa layer is thick near the crown area of the kernel and thin near the embryo portion. The largest component of the cereal kernel
is the endosperm, which is a major storage tissue. It is composed of an aleurone layer and peripheral corneous and floury zones. The aleurone layer is a single layer of cells that lies just below the testa. These cells are rich in minerals, B-complex vitamins and oil and contain some hydrolyzing enzymes. The peripheral endosperm is distinguished by densely packed cells which contain starch granules and protein bodies enmeshed in the protein matrix. Sorghum does not contain vitamin A, although certain yellow endosperm varieties contain small amounts of β-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. The embryonic axis and the scutellum are the two major parts of the germ. The scutellum is a storage tissue rich in lipids, protein, enzymes and minerals. The oil in the sorghum germ is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and is similar to corn oil. Grain texture is one
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Of the total world area devoted to sorghum, over 80% is in developing countries. In Africa, it is grown in a large belt that spreads from the Atlantic coast to Ethiopia and Somalia, bordering the Sahara in the north and the equatorial forest in the south. This area extends through the drier
PROJECT LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT THE ABS CONSORTIUM
Consumption demographics in Africa
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Environmental factors including agronomic practices affect grain composition. The mineral composition of sorghum grain is influenced more by location than by variety. Other factors such as the density of the plant population, season, water and stress also contribute to variations in gram composition. With values ranging from 56% to 73%, the average starch
content of sorghum is 69.5%. Wide variability has been observed in the essential amino acid composition of sorghum protein. Lysine content was reported to vary from 71 to 212mg/g of nitrogen and the corresponding chemical score varied from 21 to 62. The crude fat content of sorghum is 3%, which is higher than that of wheat and rice but lower than that of maize. The germ and aleurone layers are the main contributors to the lipid fraction. The germ itself
KEY ISSUES
of the most important determinants of the processing and food quality of sorghum.3
LOOKING FORWARD
Cross-section showing the physical structure of a sorghum grain
provides about 80% of the total fat. In the sorghum kernel, the mineral matter is unevenly distributed and is more concentrated in the germ and the seed-coat. Sorghum and millets are in general rich sources of Bcomplex vitamins. Among B-group vitamins, concentrations of thiamin, riboflavin and niacin in sorghum were comparable to those in maize. Wide variations are observed in the values reported, particularly for niacin. The highest niacin content reported is 9.16mg per 100g sorghum. Some yellow-endosperm varieties of sorghum contain miniscule amounts of β-carotene (0.97µg B-carotene/g grain sample), which can be converted to vitamin A by the human body; otherwise β-carotene is undetectable in sorghum. Detectable amounts of other fat-soluble vitamins, namely D, E and K, have also been found in sorghum grain. Sorghum in the form it is generally consumed is not a source of vitamin C.3
Page 23
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Sorghum could contribute most to regions and peoples in greatest need
parts of eastern and southern Africa, where rainfall is too low for the successful cultivation of maize. Sorghum is the second most important cereal (after maize) in sub-Saharan Africa.3 More than 95% of the total sorghum food consumption occurs in Africa and Asia. In Africa, human consumption accounts for almost threequarters of total utilization, and it represents a large portion of the total calorie intake in many countries. Per capita consumption of sorghum is highest in Africa.3 Sorghum, in all its colors, accounts for almost half of Burkina Faso’s agricultural production. It is the best-known local grain crop and a diet staple in both cities and rural areas.6 For example, in Burkina Faso about 45% of the total annual calorie intake from cereals comes from sorghum, although it has declined from 55% in the early 1960s. Per capita consumption is 90100kg/yr in Burkina Faso and Sudan.5 Per capita food consumption remains
higher in the rural producing areas than in the towns.3 The West African semi-arid tropics encompass all of Senegal, the Gambia, Burkina Faso and Cape Verde, major southern portions of Mauritania, Mali and the Niger and the northern portions of Cóte d'lvoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria. Cereals occupy nearly 70% of the total cultivated area in this region and engage 50 to 80% of the farm-level resources. Millets and sorghum account for 80% of the cereal production.3 In the savanna and semi-arid regions of Nigeria, millions of people consume sorghum in their daily diets as staple food. Sorghum occupies about 50% of the total area devoted to cereal crops here. Consequently, it has become the highest sorghum producer in the West African subregion, accounting for 71% of the regional total output.7 Seventy percent of Kenya is now unable to produce maize as former growing areas are turning into semiarid areas. These lands are now more conducive for growing sorghum, a drought-resistant plant.8 Sorghum is an important traditional food in the dry land areas of Nyanza, Eastern and Coast provinces.9 Sorghum and millets account for 23% of the cereal production of the South African Development Community (SADC) countries, which include Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. However, they are dominant grain crops only in Botswana and Namibia, where they account for 86 and 50% of total cereal production, respectively. Most of the sorghum produced in the SADC region is consumed by producing households or sold in informal markets, primarily for traditional beer production.3
Advantages of sorghum over other staples If sorghum is accorded research support at a level comparable to that devoted worldwide to wheat or rice or maize, it could contribute a great deal more to food supplies than it does at present. Further, it would contribute most to those regions and peoples in Page 24
greatest need. Indeed, if the twentieth century has been the century of wheat, rice, and maize, the twentyfirst could become that of sorghum!4 Why is sorghum the crop for the future? 1. Sorghum is a physiological marvel. It can grow in both temperate and tropical zones. It is among the most photosynthetically efficient plants. It has one of the highest dry matter accumulation rates. It is one of the quickest maturing food plants (certain types can mature in as little as 75 days and can provide three harvests a year). It also has the highest production of food energy per unit of human or mechanical energy expended.4 2. Sorghum thrives on many marginal sites. It is one of the toughest of all cereals. It withstands high rainfall – even some waterlogging. Recent research in Israel has shown that it also has some tolerance to salt – an increasingly useful feature for any crop these days. But most importantly, it can endure hot and dry conditions. Indeed, it can grow on sites so burning and arid that no other major grain can with the exception of pearl millet. Its massive and deep-penetrating roots are mainly responsible for this drought tolerance, but the plant has other drought-defying mechanisms as well. For instance, it apparently conserves moisture by reducing its transpiration when stressed (by rolling its leaves and possibly by closing the stomata to reduce evaporation) and it can turn down its metabolic processes and retreat into near dormancy until the return of the rains.4 Sorghum's yields are not affected by short periods of drought as severely as other crops such as maize, because it develops its seed heads over longer periods of time, and short periods of water stress do not usually prevent kernel development. Even during a long drought severe enough to hamper production, it will still usually produce some seed on smaller and fewer seed heads.
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
PROJECT LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION
With all these qualities and potential, it is small wonder that certain scientists regard sorghum as a crop with a great future. Undoubtedly, as food insecurity increases, this plant holds the key to self-sufficiency.
5. Finally, sorghum is relatively ‘undeveloped’. It has a remarkable array of untapped variability in grain type, plant type, adaptability, and productive capacity. Indeed, sorghum probably has more undeveloped and underutilized
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The population is projected to almost double in the coming years. How to feed billions of mouths with diminishing tracts of prime cropland will be the overwhelming global issue. Obviously, vast tracts of less fertile and uncultivable lands must be coaxed to produce food. Moreover, if the muchfeared greenhouse effect warms up the world, sorghum could become the crop of choice.4 In summary, it seems certain that no matter what happens sorghum will assume greater importance, especially to backstop the increasingly beleaguered food supplies of the tropics
ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
4. Sorghum can be grown in innumerable ways. Most of it is produced under rain-fed conditions; some irrigated; a little is grown by transplanting seedlings as is done with rice. Like sugarcane, it can also be ratooned (cut down and allowed to re-sprout from the roots) to grow crop after crop without replanting. It is ideal for subsistence farmers on the one hand and can be completely mechanized and produced on a vast commercial scale on the other.4
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
genetic potential than any other major food crop.4
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
3. Sorghum is perhaps the world's most versatile crop. Some types are boiled like rice; some cracked like oats for porridge; some "malted" like barley for beer; some baked like wheat into flatbreads; and some popped like popcorn for snacks. A few types have sugary grains and are boiled in the green stage like sweet corn. The whole plant is often used as forage, hay, or silage. The stems of some types are used for building, fencing, weaving, broom-making, and firewood. The stems of other types yield sugar, syrup, and even liquid fuels for powering vehicles or cooking meals. The living plants are used as windbreaks, cover crops, and for staking yams and other heavy climbers. The seeds are fed to poultry, cattle, and swine. Additionally, sorghum promises to be a "living factory”. Industrial alcohol, vegetable oil, adhesives, waxes, dyes, sizing for paper and cloth, and starches for lubricating oil-well drills are just
some of the products that could be obtained.4
LOOKING FORWARD
Rarely will one find a kernelless season for sorghum, even under the most adverse water conditions! Sorghum's ability to thrive with less water than maize may be due to its ability to hold water in its foliage better than maize. It has a waxy coating on its leaves and stems, which helps to keep water in the plant even in intense heat.2
KEY ISSUES
Sorghum plants in a field at an ICRISAT field, Kenya
How to feed billions of mouths with diminishing tracts of prime cropland will be the overwhelming global issue
Page 25
An official explains the biscuit-making process at a factory in Burkina Faso
and subtropics. For a hot, dry, and overcrowded planet, this crop will become an ever more vital resource.4
A comparison of sorghum grain and other cereals11 Sorghum
Cereals
Some varieties contain tannins
Tannins not present in wheat, rice and maize, present in low amounts in barley All varieties contain polyphenols Present in low amounts in wheat, rice, maize and barley Protein quality poor and lysine- Maize, barley and wheat are similar; rice deficient protein quality is better Protein digestibility reduced after Wheat, maize and barley protein digestwet cooking ibility reduced to a lesser extent Fat content is quite high Maize fat content is higher; fat content lower in wheat, barley and rice Malt contains low levels of Maize is similar; rice, wheat and barley β-amylase contain high levels of β-amylase Withstands periods of drought Maize, wheat, rice and barley cannot withstand drought Does not possess a true hull Maize is similar; wheat, barley and rice (husk) possess husks Withstands waterlogging Rice is similar; maize, wheat and barley cannot Indigenous to Africa Maize, wheat, rice and barley are not
Why sorghum is important to Africa? Sorghum is a crop already being grown in many African countries where undernourishment is a problem.10 It originated in the Ethiopia-Sudan region of Africa and is uniquely adapted to the region’s climate, being both drought resistant and able to withstand periods of water logging. Much of the African conPage 26
tinent is characterized by semi-arid and sub-tropical climatic conditions, making its human population the world’s most insecure people.11 Sorghum is crucially important to food security in Africa as it is able to withstand periods of high temperature and low moisture. Most of the countries where it is a significant arable crop are arid and at risk of desertification. It is a crop primarily cultivated by subsistence farmers.11 In developing countries in general and particularly in West Africa, demand for sorghum is increasing. This is due not only to the growing population, but also to the countries’ policy to enhance its processing and industrial uitilization.12 The specter of the negative effects of climate change hangs over Africa. Significant changes in rainfall have been experienced across the continent, with the area around the Sahara and in southern Africa experiencing drought, and the coastal and lowlands experiencing floods.14 Climate change is not seen as major disasters (floods, hurricanes, and drought), but rather as increased uncertainty: some years bring excessive rainfall, while others are very dry, with a great irregularity within and between the
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
In rural Bangladesh, sorghum consumption is substantial, particularly among the lower-income groups, reaching almost 70% in one of the two districts studied. This suggests that it has considerable potential to reduce malnutrition and, to a lesser extent, improve the distribution of income in rural areas.16 Due to technological advances in sorghum
2. Commercial sorghum. Wikipedia. www. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_sorghum 3. Sorghum and millets in human nutrition. FAO Document Repository. www.fao/docrep/t0818e/ 4. Lost Crops of Africa: Volume 1: Grains. National Research Council. 1996 5. Leder I. 2004. Sorghum and millets. Cultivated Plants, Primarily as Food Sources. Department of Technology. Central Food Research Institute. Hungary. 6. All about sorghum. Cooking around the world. www.theworldwidegourmet.com/ products/articles/sorghum-culinary-file/ 7. Ogbonna A C. Sorghum: An Environmentally-Friendly Food and Industrial Grain in Nigeria. Department of Food Science and Technology. University of Uyo, Nigeria 8. Small farmers optimistic about increasing earnings from outgrowers’ contracts. Business Daily. 5 March 2010. www.businessdailyafrica.com/-/539546/873220/-/ view/printVersion/-/o7qjsfz/-/index.html
12. Dicko M. 2006. Sorghum Grain As Human Food In Africa: Relevance Of Content Of Starch And Amylase Activities. African Journal of Biotechnology. Vol 5(5) pp 384-395. 1 March 2006 13. Trouch et al. Farmers and sorghum in Nicaragua’s Northern region. LEISA Magazine. December 2008. www.ileia.leias. info/ 14. Valley P. Climate change will be a catastrophe for Africa. The Independent. 16 May 2006 www.independent .co.uk/environment 15. Kebakile MM. Consumer attitudes to sorghum foods in Botswana. www.afripro. org/uk/papers/Paper12Kebakile.pdf 16. Kevin R, Majid M and Lavinson FJ. 2002. Special Focus: the Bangladesh Sorghum Experiment. Food Policy. Vol 5 Issue 1: pp 61-63. www.sciencedirect.com 17. Rohrbach, Mupanda K and Seleka T. 2000. Commercialisation of sorghum in Botswana. www.dspace.icrisat.ac.in/ dspace/bitstream.
Prof. John Taylor, sorghum expert and ABS team leader at the University of Pretoria
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LOOKING FORWARD
KEY ISSUES
Sorghum’s status is changing from being a food security crop largely consumed in the rural areas, to a commercial crop competing in the urban food market
PROJECT LEADERSHIP
11. Taylor JRN. Overview: Importance of Sorghum in Africa. Department of Food Science. University of Pretoria. South Africa. www.afripro.org.uk/papers/Paper01Taylor.pdf
INTRODUCTION
1. Sorghum. Wikipedia. www.en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Sorghum
10. Food security in Africa. Inter Academy Council. www.interacademycouncil. net/?id=8529
ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
End notes
9. Sorghum responses, inorganic fertilizer and farmyard manure. www.kari.org/fileadmin/publications/10thproceedings/
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
A study in Botswana, of sorghum products consumption among urban and peri-urban dwellers, found that people raised in the rural areas had a greater preference for sorghum compared to those raised in urban areas. This was because sorghum was a common food reserve for rural dwellers and they retained their preference for it even after migrating to urban areas.15
milling and commercialization of new sorghum products, its status is changing from being a food security crop largely consumed in the rural areas, to a commercial crop competing in the urban food market.17
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
two annual rain seasons. Farmers are interested in crops that ensure yield in all climatic conditions. Breeding new varieties through a participatory and decentralized approach is a way for them to deal with the uncertainty. In short, they are looking for flexibility in their cropping systems; they do not want very specialized cultivars, preferring sturdy all-weather varieties.3 Sorghum is the one traditionally accepted African crop that fulfils these requirements.
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• How ABS fits into the Africa Harvest vision
Mrs. Melinda Gates (left) and Dr. Florence Wambugu share a moment at a BMGF meeting
ABS: An Africa Harvest Project
• How Pioneer’s work on sorghum formed the basis for the ABS Project
How Pioneerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prior work formed the basis for the ABS Project
The first generation ABS product, also termed ABS1, is a transgenic sorghum that possesses grain with a 50% increase in lysine. During 1999 to 2000, Pioneer had already developed the transgenic plants for which seeds were available. Further work to produce ABS2 would involve leveraging corn technology for grain improvement, amino acid composition, protein digestibility and vitamins and minerals. With the BMGF funding, the ABS Project focused on using ABS1 to facilitate development of plant breeding and regulatory processes. This included preliminary evaluation of key project drivers, such as biosafety and regulatory infrastructure in the initial target countries. For example, the permit delays in South Africa provided crucial learning, confirming the robustness of the strategy to use ABS1 to identify how best to realign the project within the realities of the target countries.
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Dr. Zuo-Yu Zhao speaks at an ABS planning meeting
Pioneer had donated the initial technology valued at US$4.8 million, which represented the intellectual property rights, materials and knowhow of the transgenic biofortified sorghum that contained 50% more lysine than traditional sorghum Page 30
ABS2 was an improvement over ABS1; all the genes for this product were available within the consortium with the exception of the provitamin A gene, which were made available by Syngenta through the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Pioneer, the scientific lead on the ABS Project, had donated the initial technology valued at US$4.8 million. The in-kind donation represented the intellectual property rights, materials and know-how of the transgenic biofortified sorghum that contained 50% more lysine (an essential amino acid) compared to traditional sorghum. This technology, developed by a team of Pioneer Genetics researchers led by Dr. Zuoyu Zhao and Dr. Rudolf Jung, was to
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
genetically transform sorghum using agrobacterium and introducing a gene for improved lysine content. Initially developed through corn research, the gene was thought to have potential value for sorghum as well. Using this process, researchers introduced a high-lysine gene into sorghum. As part of the transformation process, a herbicide-resistant marker gene was introduced, which was later eliminated over subsequent generations of breeding. Several strains of the transformed sorghum produced grain. Dr. Zhao and his team published the results of this research and presented them at international conferences, beginning in 2000. An editorial on this research was published in Science magazine in 2003. 1
The project came under Grand Challenge number 9, whose goal was “to create a full range of optimal bioavailable nutrients in a single staple plant species with the aim of improving nutrition to promote health.” It addressed malnutrition as a major
KEY ISSUES
In response to BMGF’s request for proposals (RFP) , Africa Harvest submitted Nutritionally Enhanced Sorghum for the Arid and Semi-Arid Tropical Areas of Africa or the ABS Project.
Dr. Kimberly Glassman, research scientist at Pioneer (Photo Credit: Pioneer)
global health problem, disproportionately affecting developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa. The initial project consisted of two phases: Biotechnology Research (Phase 1) and Product Development (Phase 2). The first phase started in July 2005 and was completed in June 2010. The second phase, which includes plant breeding and product develop-
ment, consists of six stages that include Preparatory Work, Vector Construction, Sorghum Transformation & Event Development, Seed Shipment and Planting, Sorghum Breeding and Production of Grain by Farmers.
End notes 1. Zhao et al. 2001. The Genome of the Natural Genetic Engineer Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 Science 14 December 2001 294: 2317-2323 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1066804]
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LOOKING FORWARD
The project was one of the 43 that were selected from more than 1,000 applications. Its aim was to create a highly nutritious biofortified sorghum that could grow in the semi-arid and arid environments of Africa. It sought to develop a more nutritious and an easily digestible sorghum variety that would contain increased levels of essential amino acids, especially lysine, increased levels of vitamin A, and more available iron and zinc.
PROJECT LEADERSHIP ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
Dr. Zuo-Yu Zhao examines a sorghum leaf in a greenhouse at Pioneer facilities (Photo Credit: Pioneer)
INTRODUCTION
“
The ABS Project was one of the 43 that were selected from more than 1,000 applications. Its aim was to create a highly nutritious biofortified sorghum that could grow in the semiarid and arid environments of Africa
How ABS fits into Africa Harvest’s vision
The Mathenge family examines their sorghum field
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Even before the ABS Project, most of Africa Harvest’s interventions targeted poverty, hunger and malnutrition alleviation
Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, former Africa Harvest Chairman (left) and Dr. Florence Wambugu at a press conference in Nairobi, Kenya during the launch of the ABS project
Since its inception, Africa Harvest has been a lead contributor to making Africa free of poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Even before the ABS Project, most of its interventions targeted poverty, hunger and malnutrition alleviation. For example, the technology transfer of clean planting material, otherwise known as the TC banana project, has impacted over half a million farmers in Eastern Africa, and NEPAD has identified the project for scaling out to other countries. Banana as a crop impacts hunger and malnutrition at household level, while generating income to fight poverty. Africa Harvest is also partnering with East African Malting Limited (EAML) to help small holder farmers in semiarid regions produce sorghum for food and sell surplus grain to EAML for brewers. By helping farmers remove barriers and bottlenecks in sorghum value chain, production has increased, farmers have generated income to purchase nutritious foods as well. The Trees for Energy Project, another of Africa Harvest’s projects, demonstrates that the national energy deficit can be partly addressed through
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Further, this project adopts a longterm approach. It recognizes that many African nations require comprehensive national nutritional programs. The project integrates multiple disciplines to provide solutions and identifies biofortification as the strategy to impact communicable as
PROJECT LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION
ABS is a unique landmark project. For a project of its size and scope, it is rarely African-led, even when the problem is in Africa, which leads to marginalization of African participation, buy-in and subsequent lack of long-term sustainability. Also, the project is focusing on strengthening local capacity, has broad North/South Public/Private partnerships, all focusing on an African product—ABS.
ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
Within Africa Harvest, the ABS Project is unique in that it addresses a critical third pillar of the organization’s vision: Since malnutrition is a leading cause of the rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Africa, the project seeks to develop a more nutritious and easily digestible sorghum variety that will support better nutrition and subsequent impact malnutrition in future in Africa.
well as non-communicable diseases, including nutrient-deficiency diseases like anemia, rubella and kwashiorkor.
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The Project is focusing on strengthening local capacity, has broad North/South public/private partnerships, all focusing on an African product— ABS
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
farmer-driven restoration river lines; especially for rivers that feed electricity-producing dams. The project is unique in that it uses outreach methodologies perfected through the TC Banana project impact on poor smallscale farmers located along major rivers in Kenya. Indirectly, firewood is necessary for cooking food to alleviate hunger and malnutrition.
LOOKING FORWARD
KEY ISSUES
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Dr. Florence Wambugu (left) and ICRISAT officials discuss a sorghum field experiment in Nairobi
Page 33
• The ABS consortium approach • Building a truly African project: How ABS overcame language and cultural challenges
The ABS Consortium
• Specific roles of consortium members
ABS delegates at the 5th ABS meeting in Kenya
• Interdependency and mutual benefit of consortium members • Functional groups within the consortium structure
Innovative Partnerships for Accelerated Technology Development
The Case of Africa Biofortified Sorghum
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
PROJECT LEADERSHIP
Outside the ABS project consortium, there are consultant institutions like the Biosafety Resource Network (BRN) and Harvest Plus that provide services in biosafety and nutritional studies respectively. Furthermore, other firms such as DuPont, Syngenta and Japan Tobacco provided the initial intellectual property that enabled the project to start. Last but not least, the External Advisory Board (EAB) provides strategic advice on broad and crosscutting issues on both technical and policy matters that affect or influence the progressive development of the ABS Project.
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As the appointed grantee institution, Africa Harvest is responsible to account for and report on resources provided by the donor, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Likewise, Pioneer Hi-Bred is responsible to report on the scientific and technical progress of the project
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ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
INTRODUCTION
The enabling environment group is composed of institutions that provide certain capacities and resources that support the other two groups and facilitate deployment to the end user. Africa Harvest provides leadership in the management of the project, communication, regulatory and biosafety issues. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) completes and secures the germplasm collections in ABS target countries and provides sorghum expertise to the product development group. Africa Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) maintains stewardship of intellectual property across the consortium. Advocacy and government relations are supported by the West and Central Africa Council for Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD) and NABDA in affiliation with other sub regional organizations.
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
The product development group converts the ABS technology into a product that can be distributed to farmers and consumers. The group is composed of national agricultural research stations such as the Environmental and Agricultural Research Institute (INERA), Agricultural Research Center of Egypt (ARC), Agricultural Research Center of South Africa (ARC), Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and the Institute of Agricultural Research of Nigeria (IAR). Also, the University of Pretoria develops food technology and nutrition aspects. Other institutions that provide some support to the product development process are theNational Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) and the CSIR.
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Within technology development, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) conduct the scientific discovery and technological innovations that make the ABS product feasible and enhance its performance.
KEY ISSUES
Around these two organizations are various consortium and partner institutions that have various roles or provide resources for the project. These roles are divided into the following three major groups; technology development, product development and enabling environment.
LOOKING FORWARD
Africa Harvest as the grantee organization and Pioneer Hi-Bred, a business of DuPont, that is the lead science institution form the core partners within the ABS project. As the appointed grantee institution, Africa Harvest is responsible to account for and report on resources provided by the donor, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Likewise, Pioneer Hi-Bred is responsible to report on the scientific and technical progress of the project.
Specific roles of Consortium members
ABS delegates at the first ever ABS planning meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa
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Critical contributions occur in the areas of biosafety & regulatory procedures and communication, public acceptance and issues management Page 38
Africa Harvest, as the primary grantee and therefore lead organization, provides overall project leadership, accountability and coordination. Critical contributions occur in the areas of biosafety & regulatory procedures and communication, public acceptance and issues management. Pioneer partners with Africa Harvest as the scientific and technology lead institution. The company helped create a collaborative environment of trust and open communication between African and US scientists. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – through its Biosciences Unit – is one of the leading scientific and technology research, development and implemen-
tation organizations in Africa. The plant biotechnology research group applies plant biotechnology techniques to improve human health. CSIR acts as the technology recipient for Africa and is the focal point. The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) facilitates access to and transfer of proprietary agricultural technologies to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Its role is to initiate IP negotiations for technologies held by public and private parties worldwide. Together with Africa Harvest US attorneys from Patton and Boggs, AATF helps create appropriate partnerships to manage technology deployment and to ensure that the final product reaches intended beneficiaries.
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
PROJECT LEADERSHIP
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The University of Pretoria’s Department of Food Science has expertise in applying scientific principles to the development and supply of safe, nutritious and affordable food. It includes pilot studies, examining product development and product formulation. West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD) started as the Conference of the African and French leaders of agricultural research institutes. Later, its name changed to the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development. CORAF/WECARD reaches out to small-scale producers to help address communication gaps for ef-
Scholars at University of California Berkeley have conducted groundbreaking research since the campus’s inception. The researchers have been exploring digestibility issues, based on similar studies they have conducted for over a decade. They also contribute their expertise on genetic transformation of cereals. The Institut de l'Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA) is the dominant institute for the agricultural and environmental research
The Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) is a regional research institution situated in the Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria. It has been mandated by the university to manage crop research and agricultural improvement for Nigeria’s savannah region. IAR also provides research, training and agricultural extension services. The National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) was established in 2001 as a government agency to promote, coordinate and facilitate biotechnology R&D activities in Nigeria. Given its mandate to create awareness on biotechnology and its potential benefits, NABDA’s role within the ABS Project is to manage a Nigeria Country Communication Team (NCCT), which consists of representatives from IAR and other strategic institutions.
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ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT THE ABS CONSORTIUM ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) develops and disseminates technologies to increase productivity. It focuses on the postharvest value of agricultural and livestock products, while conserving the environment. At KARI, African scientists develop tools to boost productivity of Africa’s farms – part of a broad strategy to strengthen the entire agricultural sector; to increase income; to support rural communities; and to drive economic growth. The Biotechnology Center at the KARI National Agricultural Research Laboratory complex in Kabete, Kenya is involved in developing nutritionally enhanced sorghum varieties localized for Kenya and Eastern Africa.
in Burkina Faso. It is the public research institute mandated by the government to build capacity, develop policy, transfer technology and manage agricultural research. Its research programs focus on traditional cereals, legumes, horticultural crops, rice and cotton, cattle, pigs and poultry, the improvement of forestry production as well as the protection of natural forestry resources. It is involved in developing nutritionally enhanced sorghum varieties localized for the Burkina Faso and the Sahelian regions.
KEY ISSUES
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) role consists of providing improved sorghum germplasm. It is also involved in the enabling research for regulatory and biosafety aspects as well as the field work to document diversity (and gaps) of sorghum species in the targeted countries.
fective uptake when the product is ready. It also plays a vital role in disseminating information to support project implementation in the West African region.
LOOKING FORWARD
The South African Agricultural Research Council’s Grain Crops Institute (ARC-GCI) was established in 1981. One of its mandate crops is sorghum. Within the ABS Project, its role is to do back-crossing when the final product is ready. ARC’s expertise in conducting sorghum breeding programs for nearly three decades comes in very handy.
INTRODUCTION
Consortium members include Pioneer, CSIR, AATF, ARC-GCI, ICRISAT, University of Pretoria’s Department of Food Science, CORAF / WECARD, KARI, University of California, Berkeley, INERA, IAR, and NABDA
The ABS Consortium Approach
Dr. Clarisse Kondombo-Barro with ABS officials at INERA, Burkina Faso
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Often, those who would benefit most from new technologies resist them because they do not fully understand them. Page 40
Africa has innumerable interrelated problems, which cannot be resolved by a one-size-fits-all solution. Each issue needs to be understood in its unique context. Take technology for instance: the continent has often had a difficult relationship with new technology. Even with conventional technology, transfer and uptake has been slow, and mostly the agricultural technology that the country uses remains very basic and rudimentary. While it is human nature to resist change, culture, politics and economics play a far greater role in Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technology uptake. Often, those who would benefit most from new technologies resist them because
they do not fully understand them. Many Africans tend to be suspicious of solutions that are not home-grown and invoke references to all sorts of cultural and traditional taboos to discourage their adoption. Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s political will for agricultural development has consistently been wanting. Agricultural R&D initiatives were left to public institutions since the private sector was too weak to invest the desired capital, manpower and infrastructure. National agricultural research institutes (NARIs) have the mandate to drive agricultural R&D, but they devote limited investment to research due to inadequate funding from government and donors.
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
PROJECT LEADERSHIP
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The problematic issues which arose in project management were mostly non-scientific in nature. These included difficult situations that arose when a highly qualified western scientist was partnered with an African one. As a result, inter-institutional groups were formed to address common issues. For example, the com-
Dr. Mohamed Hovny from Egypt (left) and Professor Babatunde Obilana (right) attend an ABS planning meeting in Burkina Faso
ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT THE ABS CONSORTIUM
• African GM technology suffers from lack of incentives for research. There was lack of a concentrated system to unlock value out of the various research programs being carried out in academic institutions and private research companies. The project sought to identify linkages between the ABS research and other R&D work within the partner organizations.
As the primary grantee organization, Africa Harvest’s challenge was to unlock maximum value from the consortium by focusing efforts on the project objective, encouraging crossfertilization of ideas, creating synergy between the institutions and keeping the teams incentivized.
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The ABS Project knew that if challenges facing previous partnerships were anything to go by, especially with a consortium involved with newer technologies, little progress would be made in actual R&D. Thus it was crucial to critically think and engage with the problems because the collaboration would be unproductive without diversity of thought.
• Poor financial and institutional frameworks also hampered agricultural R&D. There were no coherent national systems focusing on the handling of GM technology. The consortium sought to link the African institutions and then provide space for African scientists to network with their American counterparts.
The uniqueness of the ABS consortium is that it identified the gaps in GM research in Africa and applied innovative solutions to address those gaps. This was accomplished through building the network of required skills and infrastructural resources.
KEY ISSUES
It is against this backdrop, and for the above reasons, that the ABS consortium was formed. The project recognized the need for strong partnerships. In designing the consortium and entering North-South partnerships, the problems of discrimination were investigated where Africans could be considered a “junior” partner. Their lack of capital, skilled manpower, infrastructure and latest technologies, often led African partners to allow their stronger Western partners to drive the R&D agenda at the expense of the real needs of the African recipients.
African human capacity in GM technology.
LOOKING FORWARD
South-South partnerships in agricultural technology are almost nonexistent. Those that do exist bring together weak partners who, even when they pool their resources, fail to accomplish much.
INTRODUCTION
The ABS Project knew that if challenges facing previous partnerships were anything to go by, especially with a consortium involved with newer technologies, little progress would be made in actual R&D
The following issues were considered: • Human and infrastructural capacities have a symbiotic relationship. Africa has many qualified scientists working in developed countries because their own countries lack the necessary infrastructure for them to make full use of their skills. There was therefore a need for infrastructure development to complement capacity building in order to retain
Page 41
munication directors from Africa Harvest, CSIR and Pioneer teamed up to deal with the communication needs of the consortium. In the financial management of the consortium, Africa Harvest developed a standard financial reporting system for all members. This facilitated conducting of financial due diligence. To standardize the accounting system, capacity had to be built across the consortium. Ideas put forward by various members were incorporated. The CSIR, for example, has an excellent tracking system for funds received, which the consortium adopted.
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The uniqueness of the ABS consortium is that it identified the gaps in GM research in Africa and applied innovative solutions to address those gaps
Obviously, a culture of interdependency and mutual benefit contributed hugely to the success of the ABS Project. Shared expertise resulted in successful technology transfer and capacity building. Delegates at the 5th ABS planning meeting in Kenya
Page 42
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
PROJECT LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT THE ABS CONSORTIUM
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Africa Harvest recognized the need for an African post-doctoral researcher to lead the transformation work
Page 43
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Africa Harvest recognized the need for an African post-doctoral researcher to lead the transformation work. It saw that Pioneer already had the necessary technology, and that CSIR facilities were the easiest to upgrade for research. This is the kind of broadbased analysis that was an integral part of consortium management. The ABS consortium has proven that, in today’s globalized economy, fruitful collaboration fosters creativity and breeds success.
The project has demonstrated professional and efficient management of a 13-member worldwide consortium. The consortium’s success can be attributed to consistent yet innovative approaches to planning and communication. The project required dynamism and an extreme ability to accommodate new demands and tasks. This was seen in the way the ABS team was able to conduct field trials while many other GM projects have been unsuccessful. The project has demonstrated that pan-African and North-South partnerships can work, provided that communication flow and consultative decisions are made to enhance the institutional members’ commitment to the partnership. Thus, the project has laid a formidable foundation for future partnerships.
KEY ISSUES
Luke Mehlo, a post-doctoral researcher at the CSIR, was attached to the Pioneer biotechnology laboratory in Iowa for a year. His training focused on high-throughput genetic transformation, which later became critical knowledge for the project. At the same time, the biotechnology laboratory at CSIR was upgraded for genetic transformation research. After a year in the US, Luke returned with his newly acquired expertise and began
work on transformation of ABS. He mastered the techniques so well that his work resulted in the production of golden sorghum with elevated levels of vitamin A. This is an example of how the project transferred technology from Pioneer to CSIR, and at the same time, built human and infrastructural capacity.
LOOKING FORWARD
As for technology transfer, Africa Harvest identified qualified and suitably experienced post-doctoral candidates and sent them to Pioneer laboratories to learn the latest techniques. Simultaneously, the consortium upgraded the laboratories from which they had recruited the candidates in preparation for their return to work on the ABS milestones.
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The project’s stress on communication has helped it create an enabling environment for project implementation
Professor Babatunde Obilana (left) and Dr. Matin Qaim (right) attend an ABS planning meeting
The project’s stress on communication has helped it create an enabling environment for project implementation. Knowledge sharing, and transparency and dialogue with different stakeholders ensuring message consistency have been the hallmarks. The project put a lot of effort into outreach activities, establishing contacts with government officials in the ministries, national biosafety committees, national agricultural research stations and biotechnology institutions. This strategy facilitated acceptance and ownership of the project by the participating African countries.
“The BMGF grant represents a major paradigm shift in agricultural research in Africa. It is refreshing to note that the project was put together by African scientists for the African continent,” says Africa Harvest CEO, Dr Wambugu. “In the past, we have been told that there is no scientific or infrastructural capacity in Africa. This has always meant that Africa-targeted research was often done outside Africa, or with minimal African scientists’ involvement. In our project design, we proceeded from the premise that Africa has scientific capacity – human and infrastructural – but this is limited to achieve the desired goals. In crafting
partnerships, we sought for organizations that were genuinely interested in helping Africa and asked them to work with us.” The consortium has grown from 11 to 13 member institutions, of which 11 are African. “Furthermore, 80% of the grant was (spent) in Africa,” says Dr Wambugu. “Even the remaining 20%, spent outside Africa, was primarily be used to build African capacity.” “Our consortium is still not looking at short-term solutions; we harnessed Africa’s, and the world’s, best scientific brains and technologies to fight malnutrition, which is a major African health problem,” Dr Wambugu said.
Part of the delegation attending the 9th ABS planning meeting in South Africa
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
PROJECT LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT THE ABS CONSORTIUM
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LOOKING FORWARD
KEY ISSUES
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
...It is refreshing to note that the project was put together by African scientists for the African continent,” says Africa Harvest CEO, Dr Wambugu
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Building a truly African project: How ABS overcame language and cultural challenges
Delegates from Burkina Faso at the ABS 2010 meeting
Africa – the second largest continent in the world – is a very diverse continent. This diversity is evident in the physical geography and climate, plurality of languages, cultures and traditions, and diverse social and political structures and practices. During the ABS Project conceptualization, it was agreed that there would be five nodes of focus: East, West, South, North and Central Africa. Success in the target countries and gaining acceptance would require project domestication and collaboration with existing institutions and research networks. Even more critical was to pay attention to cultural differences within the consortium for effective collaboration.
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Success in the target countries and gaining acceptance would require project domestication and collaboration with existing institutions and research networks
Communication was especially difficult when ABS sought to establish
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
PROJECT LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
The language and crosscultural challenges were overcome through training, reciprocal visits, innovative communication methods, interpreters, and commitments from both sides to learn one another’s language
KEY ISSUES
The adoption and training of English and French-speaking Burkinabe to support local activities was essential. To ensure local participation, the communication team produced an English and French ABS video documentary to disseminate knowledge of ABS. The documentary introduced and showcased the project to opinion leaders and decision makers in the English and French-speaking countries. The target audiences also included government officials, biosafety regulators, donor institution leaders, academicians, sorghum industry leaders, agricultural community leaders and media personnel. In addition, the communication team produced folders, inserts, and presentation slides. This was an effort to standardize the ABS messages.
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LOOKING FORWARD
the project in Burkina Faso. While most of the consortium members are from English-speaking countries, Burkina Faso is a francophone country, and the language barrier had to be tackled. The language and crosscultural challenges were overcome through training, reciprocal visits, innovative communication methods, interpreters, and commitments from both sides to learn one another’s language.
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Interdependency and mutual benefit of Consortium members
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It was advisable to use complementary technology since the short-term (five years) nature of the project involved many constructs
Dr. Jeremy Ouedraogo
The NARIS–KARI (Kenya), ARC (South Africa), INERA (Burkina Faso), IAR (Nigeria)– brought their expertise in field trials and breeding to the consortium. The scientific and technology team (Pioneer) donated technology and invested in capacity building. The technology and research organizations (CSIR, ICRISAT, AATF) brought their experience to bear on enhancing and customizing technology and intellectual property for use in Africa; and the University of Pretoria (UP) and University of California, Berkley (UCB) utilized their infrastructure and human resources for analytical work on product development. During the last five years, Egypt (ARC and AGERI) and Nigeria (IAR and NABDA) were also involved in the ABS Project.
Dr. Peggy Lemaux, research scientist at University of California Berkeley (Photo Credit: University of California Berkeley)
The fourth group of institutions (AATF, CORAF/WECARD, AH) helped influence national politics, and worked on harmonizing biosafety policies across country borders through advocacy for stakeholder awareness. CSIR, the leading science and technology research institute in Africa, employs about 1,500 scientists in different areas of research. It acted as the African recipient of technology. IP was also donated by Japan Tobacco. UP and UCB carried out parallel analytical studies on the sorghum formulation, digestibility and nutrient bio-availability. The UP team was led by Professor John Taylor. The project utilized the dual methodology, dual site approach to transformation. There was need to overlap Pioneer (Agrobacterium) and CSIR’s (biolistic) transformation activities. It was advisable to use complementary technology since the short-term (five years) nature of the project involved many constructs. Furthermore, this was a means of transferring technology from Pioneer to Africa, thereby developing the much-needed capacity in genetic engineering in Africa. This is a sustainable venture since the techniques learnt from both institutions can be used for future projects. Page 48
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
ABS Project Steering Committee: Back row from left: Lloyd le Page, Prof. Babatunde Obilana; Front row from left: Florence Wambugu, Marc Albertsen, Rachel Chikwamba
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The first ABS Project Steering Committee from left: Blessed Okole, Florence Wambugu and Paul Anderson
KEY ISSUES
The PSC is the apex decision-making organ of the project and was instrumental in proposal development and interactions with the BMGF. It initially comprised lead scientists from three organizations of the consortium – the project coordinator (Africa Harvest), the principal investigator (Pioneer) and a member (CSIR). In anticipation of changes in Phase 2, the (PSC) membership was increased from three to five members to cover additional thematic areas.
LOOKING FORWARD
Project Steering Committee (PSC)
The Project Steering Committee will continue in its role of making strategic decisions
ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
THE ABS CONSORTIUM
ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT
INTRODUCTION
PROJECT LEADERSHIP
Functional groups within the consortium structure
The PSC will continue in its role of making strategic decisions such as, setting the technical research agenda, guiding product development and stewardship, approving budget disbursements, approving project implementation milestones, scientific publications, and protection of IP generated through the project. Page 49
The first ABS External Advisory Board members: (from left) Gebisa Ejeta, Matin Qaim, Ephraim Mukisira, Harold-Roy Macauley, Florence Wambugu, Steve Daugherty, Rod Townsend, Rachel Chikwamba, Gatsha Mazithulela, Paul Anderson
External Advisory Board The EAB was made up of independent world-class experts selected by the PSC and other consortium members. The experts represented the following areas: agri-biotechnology, crops-related biodiversity, nutrition, biosafety regulation, plant breeding, agro-economics, and communication. Towards the end of Phase 1, Prof. Matin Qaim, a distinguished agricultural economist, resigned and the EAB appointed world-renowned nutritionist, Prof. Ruth Oniang’o, as the new Chair. Burkina Faso Scientist and Member of Parliament, Dr. Jeremy Ouedraogo, joined the Board.
Intellectual Property Management Group The IP management group was formed to address the Global Access Strategy for intellectual properties and related products being generated by the project to ensure their availability for charitable objectives. The group’s leadership and management came from AATF. Jacob Mignouna of AATF
Team Leaders’ Management Group The team leaders’ management group (TMLG) comprised team leaders from the consortium member institutions. Its role was to develop an annual project implementation workplan, review project implementation strategy, share information, support team building and interaction, ensure timely production of reports, and ensure achievement of milestones. Right: Team leaders’ management group: (Back row from left): John Taylor, Jacob Mignouna, Simon Gichuki, Nemera Shargie, Rachel Chikwamba; (Front row from left) Clarisse Kondombo-Barro, Zuo-Yu Zhao, Mary Mgonja, James Onsando
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Five-year Progress Highlights Project management and coordination Technology and research Breeding and product development Regulatory and biosafety Public acceptance and communication Intellectual property management Capacity building initiatives
ABS Project Accomplishments
• • • • • • • •
Five-year Progress Highlights
Red sorghum grains
YEAR 1 • Africa Harvest leads formation of the consortium, completion of the milestone-based project implementation plan, and development of the IP policy manual. • Pioneer team built 6 vectors for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, and completion of gene transfer from Pioneer to the CSIR, and from the GC9 Cassava Project. • The grain composition analysis was initiated. • UC-Berkeley commenced its studies on protein digestibility, and UP completed a literature review of value-added sorghum processing methods. • ICRISAT initiated the germplasm collection database for Africa. • Africa Harvest implements message standardization and the ABS website was created. • Africa Harvest completes an inventory of the technologies of the project, and a biotechnology acceptance literature review was adopted. • CSIR greenhouses were upgraded for GMO activities, and Luke Mehlo and Andile Grootboom (CSIR) started their research in Pioneer laboratories. • The first and second planning meetings were held in Pretoria and Nairobi respectively. • The PSC held 7 meetings, a press conference, and oversaw the nominations for the EAB.
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
• CSIR carried out molecular analysis of ABS1 plants, as well as baseline grain and nutritional analysis of 10 sorghum varieties. • Molecular, biochemical analyses of sorghum lines was underway at UC-Berkeley. • Biolistic-mediated transformation began at CSIR. • The ARC greenhouse was upgraded for GMO. • UP carried out survey in Kenya to identify indigenous sorghum products and formulation for nutrient baseline analysis. • UP carried out second survey on food consumption in the Limpopo province of South Africa. • ICRISAT selected four lead varieties of sorghum for breeding; and provided CSIR with 20 varieties for screening. • Diversity of sorghum species document was completed, and the germplasm collection was finalized. • The inventory of technological inputs was completed, and the regulatory database for ABS target countries was compiled. • Africa Harvest compiles the first phase of sorghum biology document , and the Kenya public acceptance regulatory baseline survey was concluded. • Gene flow experiments were designed; 10 molecular markers were identified; and the gene audit report was submitted to the PSC. • Africa Harvest coordinates BMGF’s visit to South Africa and Kenya for biosafety support. • The project management was organized and successfully held the third and fourth planning meetings. • The project management team attended the GC#9 meetings to initiate creation of a Product Development Resource Center.
YEAR 3 • • • • • • • • • • •
CSIR successfully suppressed targeted kafirin proteins. UCB enhanced Agrobacterium transformation to achieve 0.5% efficiency. (CHECK) UCB and UP carried out parallel studies on the digestibility of sorghum, and developed reliable digestibility assays. Report on estimates of fitness of hybrids and rate of hybrid formation between cultivated and wild/weedy sorghum was made. ABS2 entry roadmap for Kenya and Burkina Faso was developed. The PAC team led by Africa Harvest developed the ABS folder and insert, and produced a bi-lingual ABS video documentary. The project had outreaches to Europe and Canada. The AATF facilitated 2 provisional patent applications filed in the USA by CSIR. Kenneth Mburu joined Pioneer during this year for training. Africa Harvest organizes the fifth and the sixth planning meetings in Nairobi and Pretoria respectively. CORAF/WECARD and KARI were included in the consortium as collaborating institutions.
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YEAR 2
YEAR 4 • Completion of construction of transformation vectors for Agrobacterium- and Biolistic-mediated transformation at Pioneer and CSIR respectively. • Achievement of a significant breakthrough in sorghum transformation efficiency at Pioneer. • The comprehensive molecular analysis yielded preliminary data indicating low levels of beta-carotene in ABS. • The ARC/AH team completed the collection of gene flow trial data. • Twenty local sorghum varieties at ARC Potchefstroom fields were characterized for priority agronomic and allergenicit traits. • KARI project staff was trained on glasshouse protocol following the extension of the biosafety greenhouse chamber. • KARI conducted field screening to select superior and popular sorghum cultivars for introgression. • Production of sorghum-based products with ABS1 and control grains was conducted by UP. • Protein quality studies showed that the ABS traits of improved protein quality and digestibility are expressed in food products. • AATF formulated a draft Global Patent Prosecution Strategy, and the molecular marker lab at ARC was renovated. • Roadmap of the entire product development from vector construction to seed distribution was completed. • CSIR researcher, Nompumelelo Mkhonza, received training at the University of Nebraska. • KARI submitted the application for glasshouse evaluation to Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) and National Biosafety Committee (NBC). • Africa Harvest organizes the seventh and the eighth planning meetings in Mombasa and Ouagadougou respectively. • Project management attended the annual GC9 meeting in Thailand, and the PSC held 7 meetings.
YEAR 5
• The ABS Project produced the world’s first golden sorghum with increased levels of vitamin A. • The construction of eight new vectors resulted in the generation of over 1,000 transgenic events, maintaining 8% or higher transformation rates. • Transgenic plants of the first ABS construct expressing high levels of lysine were planted in CSIR greenhouses. • Pioneer conducted confined field trials in Iowa and Hawaii respectively. • The mock trial of a non-transgenic sorghum cultivar was carried out at ARC’s CFT facility. • In Kenya, three events of ABS1 were grown, compared with, and crossed with local cultivars. • Sixteen local sorghum cultivars were planted at the KARI Kiboko research station for screening on agronomic performance. • The UP team determined that the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS), the official WHO/ FAO measure of food protein quality, is more than doubled in sorghum porridge made from ABS compared to regular sorghum. • The documentation of the diversity of the wild relatives of sorghum in ABS target countries was concluded. • The ninth planning meeting was successfully held in Pretoria. • Danforth Centre and Harvest Plus joined the project for biosafety support. • Africa Harvest coordinated the biosafety-program-organized capacity building for Burkina Faso regulators Page 54
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Former ABS Project Manager, Dr. James Onsando, during a planning meeting
The ABS Project has a total of 11 consortium members, with partner organizations based in seven African countries and the USA. The Project management and coordination team – based in Africa Harvest – oversees contractual issues, financial management, project meetings, milestone planning and project monitoring and evaluation. Operational Aspects: The Project Manager handles day-to-day operations. Dr. James Onsando (who has left the project towards the end of Phase I) was responsible for management, monitoring and evaluation, facilitation of meetings, writing of reports, archiving documentation
for audits and posterity, and general enhancement of inter-consortium synergies. Dr. Silas Obukosia, the Regulatory Director, has taken over the Project Management responsibilities. Financial management: Africa Harvest manages the finance. The Director of Finance and Business Development at Africa Harvest, Michael Njuguna, ensures that all consortium members comply with the terms and conditions of the grant. He monitors expenditure, sees that expenditure is aligned to the budget; and is responsible for financial reporting and management of the financial audit process. He is also responsible
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The Project management and coordination team oversees contractual issues, financial management, project meetings, milestone planning and project monitoring and evaluation. Page 55
LOOKING FORWARD KEY ISSUES ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS THE ABS CONSORTIUM ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT INTRODUCTION PROJECT LEADERSHIP
Project management and coordination
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At the formative stage of the project, the management and coordination team developed the project policy manual, which clearly stipulates the do’s and don’ts on all aspects of the project from transformation to product deployment and stewardship.
An elderly couple inspects their sorghum field
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
for facilitating sub-grant contractual agreements and timely disbursement of project funds to the partner organization. Project Inter-Institutional Agreements: Africa Harvest manages all the agreements related to the project with the consortium members and contractual partners, thereby ensuring that institutional players comply with the stipulated terms and conditions of the grant. All institutions have to adhere to the Global Access Strategy and Charitable Objectives. The External Advisory Board (EAB): Independent world-class experts from the relevant disciplines constitute the EAB. The expertise represented includes agro-biotechnology, biodiversity, nutrition, biosafety, plant breeding, agricultural economics and public acceptance and communication. The EAB meets once each year after attending the end of the year project planning workshop to review progress, enabling it to give advice accordingly. The feedback is given verbally at the workshops and
formally in writing after comprehensive review and evaluation of annual achievements. Intellectual Property Management Group (IPMG): IPMG audits and manages all IP rights in the project, thereby creating the space for the project to operate and meet the Global Access Strategy for charitable objectives. PSC selects the Committee members, and AATF handles management. The committee meets twice a year and reports inventions, identification and audit of background technologies to guarantee freedom to operate, secure and allocate IP. Team Leaders Management Group: The institutional team leaders are responsible for the project implementation and delivery on behalf of their institutions. They are responsible for presentations on work progress during the project planning workshop. They are also accountable to the PSC for program delivery. The group holds two meetings a year along with needdriven teleconferences.
Outreach Activities: The management and coordination team embarked on a series of outreach visits to countries of project deployment such as Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Kenya. In each of the countries, they made contacts with government officials, national agricultural research stations, national biosafety committees, and biotechnology institutes. Planning Workshops: Planning work shops are held to review project progress. The functional teams plan, strategize, identify risks and come up with mitigation actions. The meetings foster team building in order to understand the project dynamics, project monitoring dynamics, evaluation and feedback, net working, and planning. The Project Policy Manual At the formative stage of the project, the management and coordination team developed the project policy manual, which clearly stipulates the do’s and don’ts on all aspects of the Page 57
LOOKING FORWARD KEY ISSUES ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS THE ABS CONSORTIUM ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT INTRODUCTION PROJECT LEADERSHIP
ABS management on a tour of the plant biotechnology lab at INERA
Delegates at the 9th ABS planning meeting in Pretoria, South Africa
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The meetings reviewed milestone achievement, and planned for future activities, including visits to partner organizations and field sites.
project from transformation to product deployment and stewardship. It was necessary to harmonize the policies of each institutional member of the consortium into a composite policy document in order to ensure that all concerned operated from one page and accepted the modus operandi. • The technology policy documents the emergency preparedness and biosafety containment for greenhouses; and regulates field and greenhouse operations, reproductive containment, seed storage and movement, and phytosanitary certification. • The regulatory/biosafety policy commits, as far as possible, not to use antibiotic resistance as a selection marker and deployment
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• The IP policy commits to abiding by all international laws and treaties as well as national laws in the countries of operation. The charitable objective is the major principle on which all the policies are founded.
Africa Harvest oversees the signing of sub-grant contractual agreements with consortium members and disburses project funds according to an agreed schedule. During the five years of phase I of the project, they held planning meetings in Pretoria, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Johnston, Iowa in USA; and Ouagadougou, Burkina FASO. Key project staff, EAB and, on a few occasions, donor representatives attended these meetings. The meetings reviewed milestone achievement, and planned for future activities, including visits to partner organizations and field sites.
• The management and coordination policies define the operation of governance, while the finance policy clearly stipulates the rules governing expenditure of project money.
During Year 1, the first and second planning meetings were held in Pretoria and Nairobi respectively. Following the completion of the milestone-based project implementation plan, the IP policy manual was de-
of Genetic User Restriction Technology (GURT); and conducts comprehensive biosafety and food safety assessment of all its transgenic sorghum products before release to farmers and consumers.
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
veloped. Three-month and 6-month progress reports were circulated, in addition to the first semi-annual narrative progress report submitted to the BMGF. The PSC held 7 meetings, a press conference, and oversaw the nominations for the EAB. Monthly research meetings were initiated. In Year 2, the BMGF visited South Africa and Kenya for biosafety support. The management held the third and fourth planning meetings. During this year, the 5-year milestone negotiations were completed. The first, second, and third quarter and the year-end progress reports were published. The management attended the GC9 meetings to initiate creation of a Product Development Resource Centre. The gene audit report was submitted to the PSC. The regulatory manager underwent training in Belgium, resulting in the hiring of an ABS regulatory consultant. The fifth and sixth planning meetings were held in Nairobi and Pretoria respectively. CORAF/WECARD and KARI were included in the consor-
tium as collaborating institutions. The quarterly and half-yearly annual reports were completed, and the milestone mid-term report published. The management made site visits to Kenya and South Africa. The EAB met for the second time this year. The seventh and eighth planning meetings were held in Mombasa and Ouagadougou respectively. The regulatory manager made a few site
visits. The management attended the annual GC9 meeting in Thailand, and the PSC held seven meetings. The ninth planning meeting was successfully held in Pretoria. Danforth Centre and Harvest Plus joined the project for biosafety support. The biosafety program organized capacity building workshops for regulators from Burkina Faso.
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The ninth planning meeting was successfully held in Pretoria. Danforth Centre and Harvest Plus joined the project for biosafety support.
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LOOKING FORWARD KEY ISSUES ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS THE ABS CONSORTIUM ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT INTRODUCTION PROJECT LEADERSHIP
A representation of level of involvement of different teams during the stages of the ABS project
Technology and research
Regeneration
Maize Hi-II expressing rice Psy
Yellowish
Orange
Sorghum callus regeneration with stable orange sector expressing pro-vitamin A gene (Photo Credit: Luke Mehlo, CSIR)
A representation of level of involvement of different teams during the stages of the ABS project
The project’s goal with regard to technology was to develop a nutritionally enhanced sorghum that would contain increased levels of essential nutrients, especially lysine, vitamin A, iron and zinc. The product development team would use this sorghum for introgression of the nutritional traits into high-yielding, African and farmer-preferred varieties. The TDG has seen close collaborations between Pioneer (the principal technology donor), CSIR (African technology recipient) and the University of Pretoria (which leads the nutrition and digestibility research). Their work involves developing and evaluating the set of technologies required to bring forth the ABS product as well as creating the set of genes that will be transferred into the product during product development. Scientists from the three institutions have been working on a product
which will have the full complement of nutritional and digestibility traits. The prerequisite work was done in transformable sorghum lines P898012 and later in TX430 and the results crossed (introgressed) with farmer-preferred local-adapted sorghum varieties. ABS1 seed was increased both at Johnston and Puerto Rico to support analysis work. Thereafter, crushed seeds were shipped to ARC and University of California, Berkley for digestibility and nutrition analysis. The initial crossing work was initiated in Puerto Rico, USA, using some of the selected ABS2 germplasm. The first field planting of ABS2 showed that kafirin reduction had been achieved. Digestibility was expected to improve as a result. Analysis of ABS2 seeds showed that protein quality had improved as lysine levels increased by 90-120%. Phytate was
-Summary of Lead Genetic Elements Trait Genes evaluated Genes forwarded Protein digestibility Gamma & delta kafirin Gamma kafirin TRX & NTR Protein quality Alpha kafirin A& B Alpha kafirin BHL9, LKR Iron and Zinc MIK MIK, MRP Pro-vitamin A PSY1 (rice & zm), Crtl PSY1 (zm),Crtl Selection maker Bar, PMI PMI A summary of the lead genetic events of ABS (Photo Credit: Zhao, Pioneer)
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reduced by 40-50% and the ABS2 transgenic seed germinated better than the wild type seed, which should result in better iron and zinc availability. With respect to seed weight, results showed that most transgenic events were heavier than the wild type. Scientific methods were used to derive the values of the nutritional targets. The parameters considered included Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), preparation methods of sorghum foods, consumption patterns, and the rate of degradation of nutrients. The original targets were 50% phytate reduction, 50% iron bioavailability, 35% zinc bioavailability, 20 micrograms of β-carotene, and trait stability. These were subsequently revised based on data that gave more accurate indications of what was achievable, keeping in mind the limitations of biology.
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The TDG has seen close collaborations between Pioneer, CSIR and the University of Pretoria
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Trait
Target
Status
Iron and Zinc 80% phytate reduction Bioavailability* 20% iron bioavailability 20% zinc bioavailability
85% phytate reduction 20% increase in iron bioavailability 30% increase in zinc bioavailability
Vitamin A*
10 µg bioavailable per gram of beta-carotene in sorghum grains stable for at least 6 months
Yellow sorghum endorsperm 31 µg per gram 30 days after harvest
Trait Stability
Stable in 6 lines including 4 African lines Stable at least in 4 generations Stable as homozygous and hemizygous
The University of California-Berkeley and the University of Pretoria carried out parallel studies on the chemical composition and food quality of sorghum using internationally established research methods. They developed a reliable, small-scale digestibility assay that yielded results. The research benchmarked the nutrient composition of sorghum grain in order to quantify the improvements in nutrient composition being obtained through recombinant GM technology during the development of ABS2. Robust analytical methods were used for research. For instance, to establish a nutritional baseline from different sorghums, the data from 11 varieties was compared to literature values. The report reviewed the literature on the effects of the major processing technologies used to produce sorghum foods on the nutrient composition of sorghum. It became clear that the effects of processing were complex and depended on the methods, nutrients, and whether the sorghum contained tannin or not. The major food processing technologies were employed on the ABS sorghums and related non-biofortified types to quantify and compare the effects of processing on the enhanced nutrients.
Grains of 11 sorghum varieties, repre sentative of most types of sorghum, especially types cultivated in Africa, were analyzed in terms of kernel characteristics and nutrient composition. The data confirmed that the protein content of sorghum grain is low and highly variable. The data also confirmed that lysine content is very low when compared to other cereals, that there is essentially no pro-vitamin A in white endosperm types, and that the iron and zinc contents are similar to other cereals. The data also confirmed that wet cooking reduces in-vitro protein digestibility and that protein digestibility of tannin sorghums is considerably lower than that of tannin-free sorghums. ABS2 lines were subjected to molecular and amino acid analysis to examine if digestibility improved and also to determine their integration patterns of traits to select events to carry forward. The results were still very preliminary and further molecular analysis needed to be performed. Various tests were used to screen the lines for the presence of vitamin A and good preliminary data was obtained from these analyses. The carotenoid content in sorghum was benchmarked and the capacity to evaluate the trends in accumulation
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When the ABS Project began, targets were set to achieve improved protein quality and protein digestibility.
of carotenoids over the course of grain development was established. Additionally, growth chamber conditions were optimized for sorghum flowering. Progress was made on crossing select events to remove high tannin background. As of February 2009, 32 vitamin A events had been generated. The University of Pretoria team investigated protein digestibility measurement using Dumas combustion assay and found that it worked well. It also found that suppression of different kafirin proteins in the grain endosperm results in changes in: grain endosperm texture (becomes floury), protein body ultra structure (can become invaginated) and cooked protein digestibility (increases). Comprehensive molecular analysis of kafirin suppression events at the CSIR produced very useful data for proof of concept and regulatory oversight of final products. Preliminary data indicated low levels of beta carotene from events generated using biolistics and rice psy1 gene. All analytical data was reported as the mean and standard deviation of at least two closely agreeing independent replicates.
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LOOKING FORWARD KEY ISSUES ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS THE ABS CONSORTIUM ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT INTRODUCTION PROJECT LEADERSHIP
For the full complement product, the project set the following targets:
The World’s First Golden Sorghum...
The transgenic sorghum has elevated levels of pro-vitamin A (up to 31 1µg/g beta-carotene), and reduced phytate (85%).
Conventional sorghum (left) and golden sorghum (right)
...and a new, faster way to transform the crop
Bioavailability studies have shown increased zinc absorption of 30% and increased iron absorption of 20–30% when phytate levels are reduced by ≥80%. Sorghum transformation went from low (<0.1%) to impressive (>10% transformation efficiency) and is no longer the limiting factor in sorghum improvement via gene technologies. When the ABS Project began, targets were set to achieve improved protein quality and protein digestibility. All targets for protein quality improvement were achieved. The product exhibited an improved amino acid profile [tryptophan (10–20%), lysine (30–120%), and threonine (30–40%)]. With respect to protein digestibility, the technology team achieved the set goal of no decrease in protein digestibility as a result of cooking.
Golden Sorghum
Results for protein digestibility analysis of different sorghums (Photo Credit: Prof. John Taylor, University of Pretoria)
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
The other technique involves a method to convert normal cells into a form of progenitor cell line – which is undifferentiated and developmentally flexible – and easily become a number of different types of cells as directed by the hormones. The ABS Consortium has essentially invented a way of recruiting somatic cells and abundant callus, and converting them into cells that can grow and give rise to multiple organs of a plant and regenerate the entire plant itself.
Code C1 T1 C2 T2 High Digestible Low Digestible Macia
Together, these novel technologies impact various stages of the transformation process, by targeting the plant cells to receive the DNA and to grow well in tissue culture, and by providing flexibility, enabling the transformed cells to organize into tissues, organs and whole plants. “The combined inventions are aimed at enhancing transformation efficiency so that one achieves transformation events faster, reliably, and efficiently. We envisage this technology to be useful for genetic engineers and plant breeders who will produce the seed for poor farmers on a charitable basis – the sector targeted by the ABS Project”, says Mehlo. The patenting of the technologies generated under the Grand Challenges Program is in alignment with the related Global Access Strategy, approved by the BMGF, which makes the technologies available to the poor and allays fears that patenting will deprive the poor of access.
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The ABS Consortium has essentially invented a way of recruiting somatic cells and abundant callus, and converting them into cells that can grow and give rise to multiple organs of a plant and regenerate the entire plant itself.
In vitro protein digestibility (%) of food products made from the different sorghums Alkali Fermented FerFermented Raw Porridge Cooked Flatbread flour mented flour porCookies Couscous flour (Ugali) Porridge (Roti) flatbread flour ridge (Ting) (To) (Inera) 72.5aD 42.9aB 56.4aC 81.2aE 56.2aC 47.8aB 56.3bC 36.3aA 33.2aA 88.4dG 62.0dC 73.4dEF 90.7dG 74.1bF 65.0bcCD 69.2deDE 54.3bB 45.5bcA 73.2abE 45.2adB 58.7aD 82.1aF 59.2aD 51.5aC 52.2aC 34.3aA 31.2a A 88.0dF 61.3cdC 73.0cdE 91.4dF 73.1bE 63.9bcCD 68.2cdeD 53.0bB 45.9bcA 83.4cE 55.4cB 68.9bcD 88.1cF 71.7bD 61.0bC 64.8cC 63.5cC 45.4bcA 75.0bF
49.7bB
67.8bDE
85.5bG
70.7bE
62.0bC
66.2cdD
59.2bcC
41.9bA
86.4dF
64.9dC
76.7dE
90.4dF
80.2cE
69.3cD
72.3eD
51.8bB
49.6cA
Values in The same column but with different letters (lowercase) are significantly different (p<0.01) Values in the same row but with different letters (upper case) are significantly different (p<0.01) Figures in parentheses indicate standard deviations
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While working on the project, Dr Luke Mehlo of CSIR, and his research partner, Dr Zuo-Yu Zhao of Pioneer, found two new methods that provided a deeper understanding of the cell cycle as well as modifications around the use of Agrobacterium. One improves gene transfer efficiency by activating genetic sequences in Agrobacterium that are responsible for transferring the T-DNA. This improves the uptake of the genes being transferred, allowing the uptake of mostly one copy of the transferred gene, which is preferential to multiple copies.
Breeding and product development
An array of food products made from sorghum
As a part of product development, the nutritional traits had to be incorporated into the farmer-preferred and adaptable African sorghum varieties. The strategy was to achieve some of the positive agronomic traits in these background varieties. This enabled the expression of traits to deliver the nutrients at levels that are biologically beneficial to the consumer. The goal is to package the primary products in open-pollinated varieties and hybrids in a form that farmers can access and grow. The secondary products will entail processing to produce breakfast cereals, flour, bread and cakes.
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The goal is to package the primary products in openpollinated varieties and hybrids in a form that farmers can access and grow.
The prerequisite work was done in non-transgenic sorghum for adaptable sorghum varieties; and hybrid parental lines were eventually used in introgression of the ABS2 transgenic sorghum traits.
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Low dogestible line
High dogestible line
Macia
Macia
C1 T1
C2
T2
Couscous made from different types of sorghum during processed product analyses (Photo Credit: Prof. John Taylor, University of Pretoria)
ABS1 seed growth was increased in summer fields at both Johnston and Puerto Rico to support analysis work. Thereafter, the crushed seeds were used for digestibility and nutrition analysis. The initial crossing work started in Puerto Rico, USA, using some of the selected ABS2 germplasm. The first field planting of ABS2 showed reduced kafirin, as a result of which digestibility improved. Analytic results of the seeds showed that protein quality improved as lysine levels increased by 90-120%. Phytate was reduced by 40-50% and the ABS2 transgenic seed germinated better than the wild type seed. The transgenic events were heavier than the wild type. ICRISAT carried out germplasm collection and characterization. Some 390 cultivated and wild sorghums were collected in Western Kenya and 150 in Eastern Kenya. ICRISAT then delegated the germplasm collection job to South Africa’s ARC, which mapped the available sorghum collections in South Africa and also planted sorghum variety for seed increase to be used by the CSIR team.
High digestibility
C1
C2
T1
T2
Low digestibility
Cookies made from different types of sorghum during processed product analyses (Photo Credit: Prof. John Taylor, University of Pretoria)
The core collection, consisting of 426 entries originating from the five ABS target countries, was acquired from the ICRISAT gene bank and sown for morphological characterization at KARI Kiboko fields in Kenya. After morphological characterization, the grain samples were sent to the ICRISAT-India laboratory for micronutrient analysis, specifically iron and zinc. Some 16 local sorghum cultivars were planted at KARI Kiboko research station in Kenya for screening on agronomic performance and phenological traits and 20 local sorghum varieties were grown in South Africa. All these were characterized for priority agronomic and phenological traits. Based on the performance data, the bestranked cultivars from Kenya were: KARI Mtama 1, Sultan, IS 8193, KMB 097 and KMB 022. Some 30 farmers from Muangini Agriculture and Food Security Group, from Kitui South, Kenya, visited the ABS screening experiment before harvest and were briefed on the purpose of the trial. After the farmers observed the 16 cultivars, their best choices for production were: KARI Mtama1 (16 farmers) and Gadam (13 farmers).
The Pioneer scientists’ work on gene introduction into a sorghum variety was successful, allowing gene testing and product development in a non-tannin line that provides clearer nutritional value and delivery. They successfully backcrossed the relevant traits of four major African varieties, Macia, Malisor 84-7, Tegemeo and Sima. Backcrossing breeds a hybrid with its parent or a similar plant in order to produce desired traits in a plant with characteristics of the original species. Sorghum ABS lines possessing improvement in protein quality, protein digestibility and mineral availability stacked in a single genetic locus showed trait stability and normal genetics for three generations, in 6 genotype backgrounds, including 4 African germplasm and in both hemizygous and homozygous states. Three lead events of ABS2 and the background check received from Pioneer were established in the greenhouse, together with 2 popular local cultivars, for introgression by KARI scientists. The seeds from crosses between the ABS lines and local cultivars were harvested after 4 Page 65
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“
After the farmers observed the 16 cultivars, their best choices for production were KARI Mtama1 and Gadam
months and analyzed for the inserted traits. These hybrid seeds will also be planted in the greenhouse for backcrossing generations to monitor trait stability. A literature review of sorghum products and processing methods indicated that the use of ABS sorghum in these products could significantly improve their nutritional value. Additionally, indigenous sorghum products and their processing methods were surveyed. This work prepares the critical pathway that determines how ABS sorghum can benefit farmers and consumers.
Geo-referenced map of sorghum collections in Burkina Faso
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It was found that ABS sorghum containing the improved protein quality and reduced phytate traits could be used successfully to make a wide range of traditional African and modern food products
Clarisse Kondombo-Barro in sorghum germplasm storage area
To deliver the varieties, the University of Pretoria conducted grassroots studies on how sorghum is consumed, and on development of sorghum menus using non-transgenic sorghum in anticipation of the varieties with the nutritional traits. A number of different food items were prepared on a small scale using early generation ABS produced by Pioneer in the USA. This line, called ABS 32, had the traits of improved protein quality and reduced phytate. To determine the availability of the ABS improved nutrient traits in the food products, levels of in-vitro protein digestibility and reactive (chemically available) lysine were analyzed. It was found that ABS sorghum containing the improved protein quality and reduced phytate traits could be used successfully to make a wide range of traditional African and modern food products, including porridge (Uji), lactic acid fermented porridge (Ting), alkaline porridge (TĂ´), flatbread (Roti), fermented flatbread (Injera), couscous and cookies. Further, the ABS traits of improved protein quality in terms of available lysine and protein digestibility were clearly expressed in the food products. The UP team found that the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS), the official WHO/ FAO measure of food protein quality, is more than doubled in sorghum porridge made from ABS sorghum compared to regular sorghum. In fact, the PDCAAS of sorghum porridge made from ABS sorghum is so much improved that it is now at the same level as wheat, maize and pearl millet. Further, the PDCAAS of porridge
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
The Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score of sorghum porridge made from ABS sorghum is so much improved that it is now at the same level as wheat, maize and pearl millet
An INERA official explains the distribution of sorghum collections in Burkina Faso
A scientist examines KARI greenhouse ABS events
5.0
36.85 47.11 5.69
100 grain wt (gm) 1.5 2.4 0.8
1 5
4.8
53.75 55.61
2.7 3.0
4 2
4 2
4.5 4.0
36.85 45.79
1.5 2.8
3 1
6 2
1 7
4.0 5.0
64.40 17.70
3.4 .
3 2
5 6
8 7
5.0 4.8
6.74 45.05
0.7 5.6
Criteria
Plant Grain Agro Grain Accession Country Fe Zn DT 50% Panicle Glume height covering nomic weight Number of origin (ppm) (ppm) flowering Exsertion color (cm) (1-9) score (gm)
High Fe High Fe High Fe
IS 18896 IS 2788 IS 24503
Low Fe Low Fe
IS24786 1S7455
High Zn IS 18896 High Zn IS 2853 High Zn 1S7305 High Zn IS 12695 Low Zn Low Zn
IS 21340 IS 8935
Nigeria Kenya South Africa Nigeria Nigeria
108.5 94 .8 76.0
44.5 20.9 13.4
62.9 81.9 46.4
300.2 360.0 210.0
2 1 3
4 2 2
4 1 9
22.6 20.5
13.3 11.0
90.4 73.4
356.5 311.5
3 1
6 4
Nigeria South Africa Nigeria South Africa Kenya Kenya
108.5 44. 5 63.5 29.0
62.9 69.5
300.2 291.9
2 2
59.0 51.8
27.9 27.9
59.0 54.0
265.8 191 .6
26.8 32.4
7.7 8.3
67.3 73.6
277.4 312.2
4.5
Analysis of chemical properties of various sorghum accessions Page 67
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Kenyan school children are fed sorghum porridge
made from ABS sorghum is substantially higher than porridge made from conventionally high lysine and high protein digestibility sorghums. To determine the level of biofortification required to meaningfully improve the nutrient content of sorghum, a survey was done in a sorghum-consuming area in South Africa. The study revealed that, with the exception of protein, all the target nutrients of ABS were deficient in the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diet. These results helped determine the nutrient targets for the project. Nokuthula Vilakati surveyed food consumption in the rural Limpopo Province of South Africa, to determine the amount of biofortification required to meaningfully improve the nutrient content of sorghum. Data from the 1999 National Food Consumption Survey of South AfriPage 68
Consumer sensory evaluation of sorghum-soya cookies at Zakhele Primary School, Pretoria (Photo Credit: Prof. John Taylor, University of Pretoria)
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
can children were used to determine the nutrient intake. The values were compared against the RDAs and Recommended Nutrient Intakes (RNI) to determine which nutrients were deficient and by how much. These values were then used to calculate the levels required to biofortify sorghum so that the children could meet their RDA/RNI.
Dr. Mary Mgonja, ABS team leader at ICRISAT, Kenya
The study revealed that, with the possible exception of protein, the children’s diets were deficient in all the nutrients stressed by the ABS Project. The study also indicated that bioavailability of the nutrients present in the sorghum was an important issue. Thus, if the sorghum was biofortified with a specific micronutrient, it would ensure that, when it is consumed in the diet, it would deliver the required amounts of the micronutrient to meet the children’s RDAs/RNIs. Although the children’s diets were not notably deficient in protein, protein biofortification of sorghum could help relieve proteinenergy malnutrition. The aim of this study was to determine the food consumption patterns of rural western Kenyan children aged 2–5 years with specific reference to sorghum consumption. The Gopani sorghum variety was the most popular out of the 8 varieties. The results showed that sorghum contributed to only 2% of the RDA of the total diet. If sorghum was the sole cereal in a child’s diet, to meet her/his required zinc intake in diets of low to medium zinc bioavailability, ABS would have to biofortify zinc by at least 100%. Again, on the assumption that in such diets sorghum was the sole cereal, ABS would have to biofortify iron by about 33%. This survey revealed that ABS sorghum would make a very big difference in people’s nutrient and health status in regions where sorghum is the major staple.
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“
The aim of this study was to determine the food consumption patterns of rural western Kenyan children aged 2–5 years with specific reference to sorghum consumption
Regulatory and Biosafety Agricultural biotechnology allows plant breeders to make precise genetic changes to impart beneficial traits to the plants human beings rely on. Biotechnology is a rapidly changing field, with many different applications and frequent new developments. Each application of biotechnology brings both benefits and risks, which should be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The topics of concern with regard to genetic modification are as follows: risks for animal and human health, risks for the environment, horizontal gene transfer, risks for agriculture, risk of loss of sorghum biodiversity and other general concerns. Biosafety relates to efforts aimed at reducing the risk of alien genes in GM plants. The FAO/WHO have provided decision trees for rigorous assessment and testing of GM foods. Government regulations affect biotechnology research choices, laboratory construction and practices, testing procedures, manufacturing practices, and marketing of new products. Across Africa, most countries are at different stages of implementation of biosafety and regulatory frameworks.
Dr. Silas Obukosia, ABS Biosafety and Regulatory Manager, inspects a head of sorghum
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Government regulations affect biotechnology research choices, laboratory construction and practices, testing procedures, manufacturing practices, and marketing of new products
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The African Union Biosafety Project focuses on capacity building for an Africa-wide biosafety system. The project aims to integrate the topic of biosafety into the political and institutional frameworks of the African Union and into its support services for the member states. The project put together a full-fledged Regulatory and Biosafety initiative to ensure that the regulated project activities conform to the national and international regulations, protocols or laws governing GM crops and their products. This initiative is responsible for development of safety guidelines and core-related activities that include: gene flow studies, toxicity tests, allergenicity tests, non-target studies (ecotoxicology), bio-availability analysis, digestibility assays and compositional analysis for promising transgenic events generated by the TDG.
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
ecological research in Kenya prior to the introduction of the ABS products for regulatory approval. The survey led to an understanding of farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perceptions, knowledge and information pathways on sorghum varieties, seed systems and agronomic practices (including weed control).
The ABS Project is committed to complying with biosafety regulations and legislation of the African countries where it operates. The project is committed to working with national and regional biosafety institutions and structures, to align with agricultural and biotechnology policies.
Following a request by the ABS EAB, a panel of experts was constituted to provide its views on sorghum with respect to gene flow. The genes used by the ABS Project are for improvement of nutritional traits. In the event of gene flow, the likely scenario would be for the wild sorghum populations to have increased vitamins and mineral levels without affecting the competitive advantages of the populations.
ICRISAT conducted non-transgenic baseline environmental and socio-
INERA conducted a gene flow trial pollen competition of red-seeded
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The ABS Project is committed to complying with biosafety regulations and legislation of the African countries where it operates.
Groundbreaking for KARI greenhouse extension
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The Regulatory and Biosafety team also provides leadership for permit application dossiers for elite events that need to be imported or used in contained greenhouse or confined field experiments. The team is responsible for gathering regulatory data, training project personnel and providing oversight to the other ABS programs; in particular, the Regulatory and Biosafety works closely with the communication team.
Gene flow experiment at ICRISAT, Kenya
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The estimates revealed that gene flow from ABS sorghum would persist in the wild populations at low frequency and that impact would be largely neutral
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sorghum variety in Saria, Burkina Faso. Estimates of fitness of hybrids and rate of hybrid formation between cultivated and wild/weedy sorghum were made, and a report prepared by ICRISAT. The estimates revealed that gene flow from ABS sorghum would persist in the wild populations at low frequency and that impact would be largely neutral. Pioneer applied for and got approval for permits to grow ABS1 and ABS2 in the USA. The open field trials were conducted first in 2007 (Johnston, Iowa) and then in 2008 (Puerto Rico). The regulatory team developed the standard trans-boundary movement application in compliance with the Cartagena Protocol. South African import permits for ABS1 and ABS2 were obtained. CSIRâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s application to conduct ABS1 trials in South Africa was successful after it supplied additional information confirming it would meet biosafety requirements for the laboratory trials.
CSIR received a permit from the South African government for the construction of a greenhouse, in which they planted ABS1. The greenhouse experiment with ABS2 at CSIR was completed and the report submitted to the PSC. The Kenyan government approved a permit for greenhouse testing of ABS2 following the approval of an import permit for movement of ABS2 seeds from Pioneer to Kenya. The project assisted with the expansion of the fourth biosafety greenhouse chamber at KARI. An ABS2 trial permit application was presented to KARI IBC and approved for NBC consideration. Staff members from KARI, Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and INERA were trained in biosafety contained and confined trial management. In South Africa, ARC got its containment facilities certified following its
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
The ICRISAT molecular-analytical laboratory for gene flow studies was equipped in the first year of the project. Expansion of the greenhouse containment facility at KARI for ABS
work was a joint milestone led by KARI with support from Africa Harvest. The sorghum germplasm collection was completed following ICRISAT’s documentation of the diversity of the sorghum species in the target areas.
The fifth year saw the mock trial of a non-transgenic sorghum cultivar being carried out at South Africa’s ARC CFT facility, while preliminary preparation for CFT of ABS in Burkina Faso was underway.
A regulatory training manual was developed and dossiers on the regulatory and biosafety requirements in the countries of product deployment were compiled. The training manual was used to train the ABS personnel on biosafety and regulatory issues of the project.
At the commencement of the project, the Regulatory Manager was Dr. James Okeno, who was replaced in the third year by Dr. Silas Obukosia, formerly of USAID, Kenya. He joined as the Director of Biosafety and Regulatory Affairs.
“
A regulatory training manual was developed and dossiers on the regulatory and biosafety requirements in the countries of product deployment were compiled. The training manual was used to train the ABS personnel on biosafety and regulatory issues
ABS transgenic sorghum grows in KARI biosafety level 2 greenhouse
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upgradation from level 2-P to 3-P. Permits for golden sorghum as follow up to the ABS1 were successfully submitted in early 2009 as vectorbased applications, with ARC taking the lead. The field permit to grow ABS2 in South Africa was then obtained. The field-testing experiment with golden ABS2 was completed and the report submitted.
Communication and Issues Management Strategy
“
For a new concept or strategy to be widely accepted, the content needs to be communicated in a language that the audience connects with.
Daniel Kamanga, Director, Communication for Development Program, Africa Harvest
The ABS Communication and Issues Management (C&IM) team, headed by Africa Harvest’s Communication Director, Daniel Kamanga, manages communications based on a strategy paper developed at the start of the project. The C&IM White Paper highlights the strategic thrusts for the project within a short and medium timeframe, incorporating changing project needs along the way. Overall, the strategy focuses on achieving the following three key objectives:
also gone into project information dissemination in key target countries. In Kenya, a country survey on biotech acceptance was undertaken at the beginning of the project. However, in other target countries, keeping the complex nature of research during Phase I in mind, the project focused on critical groups of stakeholders.
during the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa’s (FARA) biannual general assembly. The C&IM team provides training and briefing points for members going to these conferences or being interviewed. A project video was used to standardize information shared about the project in the different target countries.
Outreach to the stakeholders takes place through various forums: for example, the project hosted exhibitions at the Agricultural Science Week
For a new concept or strategy to be widely accepted, the content needs to be communicated in a language that the audience connects with. This in-
An article on the ABS project on the Forbes website
• Create an enabling environment to achieve the goals; • Improve understanding and increase acceptance of the project, especially within the key target countries; • Provide continuous C&IM support to the project teams. The C&IM team works closely with the PSC. It comprises a team leader, Mr Kamanga (Africa Harvest), representatives from Pioneer (Ms Michele Waber, who has since been replaced by Ms Kristie Bell) and the CSIR representative (Ms Alida Britz). Communication practitioners from partner institutions also participate in the deliberations. During the period under review, a major part of the C&IM efforts went into creating an enabling environment to achieve project goals. Efforts have Page 74
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Due to the changing biotechnology and biosafety policy environment across the target countries, the C&IM team, in collaboration with the Biosafety and Regulatory Affairs team, also focuses on outreach and capacity building. One-on-one meetings between consortium members and key government, parliamentary and political officials as well as consultative meetings with biosafety regulators are held. Through consultation with other teams, the C&IM team analyzes issues with potential for negative consequences,
An article on the ABS project on the IPS News Agency website
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The C&IM team helps produce publications of wide-ranging complexity to communicate with shareholders
A journalist interviews Africa Harvest CEO, Dr. Florence Wambugu
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volves production of communication materials that weighs the audienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s level of understanding, incorporates their needs and matches them to the project goals. The C&IM team helps produce publications of wide-ranging complexity to communicate with shareholders. Among them is a fourvolume literature review of public acceptance of biotechnology in Africa and standard operating procedures for laboratories for the internal audience, a mid-term report and project brochures.
: Journalists attend a training session organised by the ABS communication team
and proposes and implements strategies to mitigate worst-case scenarios. Appropriate documents are developed to help the project respond quickly to issues to avoid any situation turning into a crisis. The team also provides support to project teams to speed up timely implementation of various activities. For example, it provides EnglishFrench translation support for critical documents, hosts exhibitions and
holds C&IM training courses specific to the project milestones. The team plays a critical role in getting an internal understanding and buy-in of the project roadmaps; in particular, it identifies cross-functional activities with the Nutrition, Regulatory Affairs and Breeding teams. Other core activities include maintenance of the project websites and intranet, circulation of talking points within the consortium and dispatch-
ing ABS newsletters to specified audiences. The team also provides media support and handles general enquiries. Overall, effective implementation of the C&IM strategy has created a receptive environment for the project in all the target countries. In the next phase, the challenge will be to gain acceptance at community levels by getting farmers to plant nutritionenriched sorghum varieties and consumers to try the ABS product.
An article on the ABS project on the UC Berkeley website
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Financial Mail (South Africa) article on ABS greenhouse trial permit approval in South Africa
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â&#x20AC;&#x153;
Overall, effective implementation of the C&IM strategy has created a receptive environment for the project in all the target countries
Comprehensive Strategy to Address Geneflow Issues Over the last five years, the ABS Project has made substantial progress in laying out plans and interventions to address the sorghum gene flow concerns through three approaches. First, a gene flow expert was hired to develop an exhaustive description of sorghum gene flow concerns and remedial measures. Second, a panel of experts on gene flow was constituted; they developed an opinion paper on sorghum gene flow, recommending specific experiments. Third, Nebraska State University and the University of Nairobi conducted experiments on the impact of gene flow.
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ABS2 confined field trials in the USA (Photo Credit: Pioneer)
Over the last five years, the ABS Project has made substantial progress in laying out plans and interventions to address the sorghum gene flow concerns
The main outcomes of the first expert analysis were: (i) the key issue to address from a scientific perspective is the impact or effect of the gene flow; (ii) however, the question cannot be answered from a scientific perspective alone and information on the process of gene flow should also be provided, such as how far does pollen travel, what are the means of gene flow, etc.; and (iii) that ABS nutritional genes are unlikely to have a negative impact on the environment but supporting data should be provided through experiments. ABS further engaged six experts qualified in various disciplines pertinent to gene flowâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;such as ecology, genetics and plant breeding. Their key findings/recommendations were:
Different sorghum landraces (Photo Credit: INERA), Bottom, Facing page Top and Bottom
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
ii) Gene flow from crop plants to wild relatives or landraces has resulted mainly in an increase in genetic diversity. Gene flow from ABS sorghum into wild sorghum or landraces is therefore not expected to alter the genetic diversity any differently than gene flow from other sorghum varieties; iii) There is unlikely to be any environmental impact like yield loss in crops due to increases in pest pressure or weediness, or loss of diversity in flora or fauna due to invasiveness, or toxicity due to the presence of ABS genes in cultivated or wild sorghum, which is a common regulatory concern;
“
Gene flow from ABS sorghum into wild sorghum or landraces is therefore not expected to alter the genetic diversity any differently than gene flow from other sorghum varieties
iv) A thorough characterization of the transgenic plant compared to the non-transgenic plant, for agronomic performance, fitnessrelated characteristics, toxicity, or nutritional composition, would demonstrate that there have been no significant unintended changes, and support the assessment that negative environmental impact following gene flow from ABS sorghum is unlikely; v) A study to compare fitness-related characteristics in ‘ABS x wild’ hybrids and ‘non-ABS x wild’ hybrids would provide evidence that unexpected gene-interactions will not significantly alter the weediness or invasiveness of hybrids. This comparison would provide additional confidence that negative environmental impact related to gene flow is unlikely; vi) The panel prepared a manuscript to describe these opinions and their bases, which has been published by Nature Biotechnology.
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i) Gene flow between cultivated and wild sorghum occurs with some frequency. Neutral genes from cultivated sorghum such as the nutritional genes used in developing ABS are not expected to have a selective advantage in the wild;
Summary of the expert report on sorghum gene flow The key findings were1: i) Gene flow between cultivated and wild sorghum occurs with some frequency. Neutral genes from cultivated sorghum as the nutritional genes used in developing ABS are not expected to have a selective advantage in the wild; ii) Gene flow from crop plants to wild relatives or landraces has resulted mainly in an increase in genetic diversity. The panel therefore does not expect that gene flow from ABS sorghum into wild sorghum or landraces will alter the genetic diversity markedly; iii) Environmental impact, a common regulatory concern, is unlikely; iv) A thorough characterization of the transgenic plant compared to the non-transgenic would demonstrate that there have been no significant unintended changes; v) A study to compare fitness characteristics of ABS and wild hybrids and non-ABS and wild hybrids would provide evidence that unexpected gene-interactions will not worsen the negative characteristics of hybrids. 1. Schall B., Ellstrand, N., Pederson J., Raybould A., Ayiecho Olweny and Ouedraogo J. (2009). Determining the risk when there is gene flow (2008). Draft report submitted to ABS.
Members of the panel The panel consists of six members: • Barb Schall: Professor of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis and Member of the National Academy of Sciences. He investigates the evolutionary process within plant populations using a wide range of technology including molecular techniques. Collaboration with researchers from the Missouri Botanical Garden, spans molecular evolution of specific DNA sequences to higher-level systematics and analysis of developmental patterns. • Norm Ellstrand: Professor of Genetics, University of California, Riverside. He focuses on (a) gene flow and hybridization as factors in the evolution of increased invasiveness; (b) consequences of unintentional gene flow from domesticated plants to their relatives; and (c) positive and negative impact of genetically engineered crops, especially with regard to unintentional transgene flow. • Jeff Pederson: Research; Geneticist, USDA/ARS, Lincoln, Nebraska. Strong background in sorghum product development. Present research includes enhancing the energy yield and nutrient value of sorghum by modifying structural and storage carbohydrates and developing systems for deployment of transgenic sorghum. • Alan Raybould: Scientific Fellow, Syngenta Corporation, United Kingdom. Expert in environmental risk assessment. Highly published and respected within the broader regulatory community for applying quantitative measurements to risk analysis in crop plants, with considerable experience in transgenic crop risk assessments. • Patrick Ayiecho Olweny: Geneticist/Plant Breeder. Member of Parliament for Muhoroni Constituency, Kenya National Assembly. Thirty years’ experience in agriculture and related activities. Former professor, University of Nairobi and Maseno University. • Jeremy Ouedraogo: Geneticist. Member of Parliament in Burkina Faso. Cowpea research while at INERA in Burkina Faso.
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Gene flow is any movement of genes from one population to another.1 It is the natural exchange of genetic material and plays a role in the ability of species to adapt and evolve. When genes are carried to a population where those genes did not previously exist, gene flow can be an important source of genetic variation. Interbreeding between cultivated plants and their wild relatives is constantly taking place. However, it is not the movement of genes that is of concern, but the effects of the transferred genes into the new gene pool. The potential for gene flow to wild related species and landraces is of priority concern to the ABS Project, whose goal is to develop transgenic sorghum for Africa using genes from different sources. The centre of origin and diversity of sorghum is in Africa. It is in the Ethiopia-Sudan region of Africa that sorghum was first domesticated and where it still remains a major crop. There are several wild and weedy relatives growing alongside the cultivated sorghums. Gene flow in sorghum has not been extensively studied. However, existing data suggest that it occurs readily between the crop and nearby or sympatric weedy populations, although very rarely to distant, more-or-less truly ‘wild’ populations.2 Gene flow from crop to wild relatives in sorghum does occur with some frequency, resulting mainly in an increase in genetic diversity. Gene flow from cultivated to wild feral sorghums has been well documented in the United States, and studies show that the out-crossing rates are very low compared to those of maize. A South African study on crop-to-crop gene flow in Sorghum bicolor revealed strong evidence of introgression of GM-sorghum into other crops when cultivated sorghum is deployed.3 A 2008 study on sorghum crop-to-wild gene flow in Ethiopia and Niger showed that gene transfer from cultivated sorghum to wild populations is likely to be widespread.4 A 2009 environmental risk assessment for crop-to-wild gene flow concluded that asymmetric gene flow occurred from cultivated sorghum to its wild/weedy relatives at a local scale in traditional farming systems in Kenya.5 Another study showed that Kenyan sorghum farmers use practices that can promote rapid spread and intermixing of genes of cultivated and wild/non-cultivated varieties.6 INERA conducted a Gene Flow Trial Pollen competition of red seeded sorghum variety in Saria, Burkina Faso. Estimates of fitness of hybrids and rate of hybrid formation between cultivated and wild/weedy sorghum were made, and a report prepared by ICRISAT. The estimates show that gene flow from ABS sorghum will persist in the wild populations at low frequency and that impact will be largely neutral. It therefore follows that, when GM sorghum is grown in standard conditions, transgenes are likely to be transferred to and persist in the wild populations as with other genes from cultivated sorghum.2 To enhance the reliability of the research findings, a panel of six experts (see story on page 30) was assembled to review the findings.
Endnotes 1. Gene Flow. 2010. www.en.mimi.hu/biology/gene_flow.html 2. Hokanson et al. 2010. ‘Biofortified sorghum in Africa using problem formulation to inform risk assessment’. Nature Biotechnology. 28:900–903www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v28/n9/full/nbt0910-900.html 3. Schmidt, M. & Bothma, G. 2006. ‘Risk Assessment for Transgenic Sorghum in Africa: Crop-to-Crop Gene Flow’. Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. Crop Science. 46:790–798 4. Tesso T. et al. 2008. ‘The Potential for Crop-to-Wild Gene Flow in Sorghum in Ethiopia and Niger: A Geographic Survey.’ Crop Science. 48:1425–1431 5. Mutegi E. 2009. Crop-to-wild gene flow: environmental risk assessment for the release of genetically modified sorghum in Kenya. Department of Plant Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 6. Mgonja et al. 2009. Prevalence and drivers of seed and pollen-mediated gene flow in sorghum: implications for biosafety regulations and policy in Kenya. Contributed Paper prepared for presentation at the International Association of Agricultural Economists Conference, Beijing, China, August 16–22, 2009
The important question with regard to the ABS Project is: Will there be any harmful consequences when the transgenes from ABS enter the wild populations through gene flow? Answer: Transgenes from ABS sorghum will persist in the wild populations at low frequency and impact will be largely neutral. Page 81
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Background to gene flow
Intellectual Property Management The term Intellectual Property (IP) refers to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which property rights are recognized, usually under a legal system. Such laws grant the owners certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets. IP rights are important as they protect the value of critical inventions such as the world’s first sorghum genetic transformation system created by the ABS Project. The project’s IPMG manages the intellectual property issues within the consortium. They ensure that project members have the freedom-to-operate (FTO) the project technology, negotiate access to technologies with technology donors and other parties, and facilitate patenting of new technologies developed to enable free access to the technology for public good.
Dr. Jacob Mignouna, AATF team leader for the ABS project
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IP rights are important as they protect the value of critical inventions such as the world’s first sorghum genetic transformation system created by the ABS Project
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The team enforces core IP values within the project such as the Charitable Objective that seeks to provide access to the knowledge created by the project and to supply the final ABS product through affordable and accessible means free from royalties and at a no-profit basis. It also enforces the Global Access Strategy, whereby the IP donated to and generated by the project is available to the global public. That is, farmers will have access to the final product at an affordable price and the knowledge generated through the project is available for further research. The team is led by AATF, with support from IP managers from the consortium member institutions. It manages IP, proprietary information and aspects of regulatory compliance across the board. The IPMG is also responsible for updating new technologies, and, where applicable, assessing the suitability for patenting some of the technology developed by the project for public good. The IPMG conducted an inventory of all technologies – genes, promoters and associated genetic materials – and related IP being used or to be used in the project. An FTO analysis, conducted immediately after the project started, determined the extent to which the ABS Project could utilize technologies without infringing the IP rights of owners. Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
CSIR researchers Dr Luke Mehlo and Dr. Andile Grootboom spent extensive periods at the Pioneer laboratories in the US to familiarize themselves with the cutting-edge molecular biology and plant modification techniques. They studied advanced scientific techniques, protocol and strategy designs for construction of plant transformation. Grootboom was hosted at Pioneer for six weeks to carry out critical analysis of the kafirin suppression events. By the end of their first week at Pioneer in Johnston, the two visiting African scientists had already experimented with an alternative way to genetically engineer crops, Agrobacteriummediated transformation. According to Mehlo, this “enabled the project to be kick-started” and has resulted in the novel techniques developed to date. Mehlo, a post-doctoral scientist and senior researcher in plant biotechnology,
completed his program and, after 18 months at Pioneer, returned to CSIR to make use of the techniques he had learnt. Getu Beyenne, an Ethiopian native working in South Africa, joined the other scientists at Pioneer to focus on the ABS Project R&D in genetic transformation. “This is a life-changing project that could save a lot of lives,” said Beyenne, a post-doctoral research fellow at CSIR. Kenneth Mburu from Kenyatta University also trained at Pioneer on genetic transformation. Complementary funding from the Biosafety Research Network enabled CSIR MTech student, Nompumelelo Mkhonza, who was selected to represent South Africa, to attend an eight-week course on biosafety assessment at the University of Nebraska in the US. She has since completed her MTech (cum laude),
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A freedom-tooperate analysis, conducted immediately after the project started, determined the extent to which the ABS Project could utilize technologies without infringing the IP rights of owners
Dr. Luke Mehlo (left) and Dr. Andile Grootboom (right) of the CSIR analyse sorghum under a microscope during their training at Pioneer
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Capacity building initiatives
Scientists trained by the ABS Project. Name of scientist
Field of training
Institution
1
Dr Luke Mehlo
Transformation technologies
CSIR
2
Dr Andile Grootboom
Transformation technologies
CSIR
3
Dr Getu Beyene
Transformation technologies
CSIR
4
Mrs Nompumelelo Mkhonza
Biosafety assessments, tests and monitoring
CSIR
5
Dr Joel Mutisya
Transformation technologies
KARI
6
Mrs Bosibori Bett
Biosafety assessments, tests and monitoring
KARI
7
DrClement Kamau
Breeding
KARI
8
Dr Mary Mgonja
Breeding
KARI
9
Mr Kenneth Mburu
Transformation technologies
KU/AH
10
Prof Shireen Aseem
Transformation technologies
AGERI
11
Mr Mahamadi Ouedraogo
Breeding
INERA
12
Mrs Clarisse Barro
Breeding
INERA
13
Dr Silas Obukosia
Biosafety assessments, tests and monitoring
AH
14
Dr Nemera Shargie
Breeding
ARC
which was financed by CSIR and the ABS Project. An MSc student from CSIR, Zodwa Mbambo, embarked on a four-month visit to the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), focusing on related research within the ABS Project, including similar work on soybean. Breeders from KARI, ICRISAT, and INERA were trained in breeding at Pioneer, with an emphasis on high throughput sorghum breeding for commercial purposes. Clarisse Barro, a sorghum breeder at INERA, was part of the team that underwent three weeks of intensive training in novel breeding techniques at Pioneer facilities. “We received theoretical and practical training on the selection methods, data management, germplasm assessment, development of varieties, hybrids creation and various related
subjects and field exercises.” The new knowledge served to reinforce previous experience. However, working with hybrids was a new experience as most of their local research focused on open-pollinated varieties. Mahamadi Ouedraogo, a scientist from Burkina Faso, worked as a research fellow at Pioneer. Following his fellowship, Ouedraogo applied his experience and knowledge to the development of biofortified sorghum to meet the ABS Project goals. In the past five years, DuPont business Pioneer hosted 12 research fellows from Africa. Under the project, 15 scientists from KARI (Kenya) and INERA (Burkina Faso) were trained to carry out glasshouse and confined field studies of ABS events. In addition, scientists from these institutions and from KEPHIS were trained by Africa Harvest staff
on the execution of contained (greenhouse) experimentation in compliance with regulatory requirements. It is anticipated that throughout the lifespan of the project, a large number of young postgraduate students will benefit from training in some form, either with CSIR or with one of the other two South African partners (the University of Pretoria and ARC) – helping to increase capacity in the science, something that is desperately needed. Additionally, the cross functional teams of the ABS Project undergo strategic planning and review sessions, where both scientists and professionals from other disciplines share knowledge and experiences that sharpen the skill levels across the whole group. Both formal and informal processes have impacted the careers of over 70 scientists involved in the project.
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“This is a life-changing project that could save a lot of lives,” said Beyenne, a post-doctoral research fellow at CSIR
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Key Issues • • • • • • • •
CSIR’s role as the African technology recipient for the ABS Project The need for multi-cereal R&D, especially of ‘orphan’ cereals Indications on gene flow Cost-benefit analysis of biofortification How biofortification complements other nutritional initiatives Projected African economic benefit from nutritional enhancement Projected socio-economic impact of biofortification Impact of biofortification on agronomic productivity
CSIR’s Role as African Technology Recipient From the beginning, technology transfer and capacity building were identified as critical ingredients for the project’s future. For these aspects to work effectively, the project set out to strengthen the human and infrastructural capacity of key consortium members. The technology transfer strategy also involved capacity retention by entering into international technological partnerships. Overall, the project faced a number of training challenges, including: • Establishing and servicing 5 postdoctoral positions • Establishing and administering year-long sabbaticals in the best labs in South Africa and the US • Recruitment of suitable candidates in genetic engineering, regulatory and biosafety aspects The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa was identified as the best African institution for technology transfer and capacity building for the project, given its history of leading African research in biotechnology. It serves as the bridge from the scientific community within Pioneer to Africa, ensuring that technology is properly transferred to and implemented in Africa. It is one of the leading scientific and technology research development and implementation organizations in Africa. It has a staff complement of 2,500 personnel, including over 700 PhDs/MScs in eight major operating units. Internationally, it has cooperation agreements with major overseas R&D organizations and companies and is currently working with 18 African countries. Technology transfer and infrastructure development At the inception of the project, the CSIR already possessed the humanitarian research/use license from Syngenta for the vitamin A gene constructs of Phytoene desaturase (from maize) and Carotene
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Dr. Rachel Chikwamba, CSIR team leader of the ABS project
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The CSIR in South Africa was identified as the best African institution for technology transfer and capacity building for the project, given its history of leading African research in biotechnology. Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
The CSIR and Pioneer formed part of the technology group of the project. Pioneer donated the initial ABS technology to the former, which they customized and enhanced for use in Africa; this included patented sorghum genetics, seeds and know-how. The project has played a pivotal role in establishing scientific infrastructure; in particular, in equipping the laboratories at the CSIR. The CSIR has upgraded its research infrastructure, notably its greenhouse facilities, which now comply with world-class standards for genetic modification research. Two of its greenhouses were upgraded to level 3 biosafety for GMO activities.
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The project has played a pivotal role in establishing scientific infrastructure; in particular, in equipping the laboratories at the CSIR
CSIR: A World-Class Organization At the CSIR, skills and facilities in biotechnology, chemistry, agro-processing, food science and engineering couple with industrial and commercial experience to provide competitive and cuttingedge bioscience knowledge. All expertise is translated into innovations and solutions to improve health, food security and energy scenarios in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. The CSIR has previous experience in managing and participating in numerous cooperative programs, including the development of transgenic crops (with a particular focus on African cereal crops), development and use of molecular markers for crop improvement, safety assessment of transgenic crops, and identification of novel genes and secondary metabolites from South Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s genetic diversity. Projects have been funded by organizations such as USAID, the EC Framework Programs, and the South African government as well as private companies. The CSIR works in close collaboration with ARC, Africa Harvest, Syngenta, Pioneer, ICRISAT, and links to community organizations which will take responsibility for implementation of the developed technology. The Crop Transgenics Group of the CSIR Bio/Chemtek functions as a scientific coordinator of European Commission funded projects, collaborating with various European and African partnerships. The key CSIR scientists of the ABS Project are all qualified, experienced and accomplished people in their respective fields. Their biographies, which follow, are an impressive description of their journey until now.
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desaturase (from Erwinia uredovora). In addition, it also had a sub-license from Syngenta to use the PMI (phosphomannose isomerase) system for biolistic transformation in sorghum. These resources enabled ABS scientists to conduct the transformation of sorghum.
The need for multi-cereal R&D
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There are technologies for producing a wide range of cereal products with different health-promoting properties and more acceptable sensory quality
Cereals are the world's basic staple food and provide much of the required energy and protein for many populations.1 Cereal plants such as wheat, rice, corn, barley, rye, oats, and millet produce grains that are the base of the world's food supply. Their importance as food for humans and animals results in considerable investment in R&D.4 Cereals are important food and cash crops in Africa. Maize, for example, is a major staple food and source of calories for more than 300 million people. It is also an important fodder crop and industrial raw material. 2 However, due to the popularity of “exotic” cereals such as maize and wheat, research on Africa’s indigenous cereals such as sorghum and millet has been neglected. The so-called “orphan crops” contain many health-protecting compounds such as phytochemicals, vitamins and indigestible carbohydrates, but the texture and taste of functional cereal products can be less than ideal. However, there are technologies for producing a wide range of cereal products with different health-promoting properties and more acceptable sensory quality.3
An array of grains and legumes commonly consumed in Africa
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Some of the areas under investigation include: â&#x20AC;˘ Studies of the chemical composition and physical structure of cereals and their relationship to grain quality. The quality studies cover nutritional quality, processing quality, and product quality. â&#x20AC;˘ Research on new cereal varieties with better quality, disease resistance, and yield.4 According to the CSIR, due to climate change, cereal production could fall by 50% in parts of southern Africa by 2080. In 2008, South Africa's government said climate change could cut maize production in the country, which is the biggest producer of maize on the continent, by 20% within 15 to 20 years.5 Among small-scale farmers, the threat of climate change is higher because of widespread poverty. There is an increased likelihood of crop failures, livestock diseases and therefore livelihood insecurity. Africa has to turn to more drought-resistant strains of cereals, and rely more on GM strains.5 Cereals are mostly grown by smallscale farmers. Demographic pressure and the consequent demand for more food are driving small-scale agriculture towards greater intensification. Most crops are produced continuously without any fallow period or use of external inputs. Other challenges to agricultural intensification and high productivity include the use of inappropriate varieties and cropping systems, high pest pressure, erratic moisture availability, high post-harvest losses, poor access to input and output markets, lack of credit services, unfriendly policies, and low research and extension capacity in national programs.2 Most of these constraints interact in a very complex manner and result in unsustainable farming practices and land degradation, which have a significant impact on food security,
levels of poverty and the environment in both rural and urban communities. The number of malnourished people continues to increase due to low intake of energy, protein, and micronutrients.2
In addition to creativity, product development requires knowledge of the properties of cereals and how these properties are affected by combining cereals with other ingredients and using different processing methods.4
The above challenges can be addressed by generating resilient crop germplasm, which will be integrated with appropriate soil, crop, and pest management practices. Biotechnology is one of the technologies that can be used to drive the R&D of improved cereals. The yield-enhancing technologies will be combined with improved post-harvest value-addition and labor-saving technologies to optimize productivity.2
A case in point is the snack foods market in Africa. The growth of this market is largely dependent on maize and wheat. Yet projects in Africa and South America have shown that serving traditional grains sprinkled with just a little imagination can stimulate not only modern taste buds but the local economy as well. 6
It is also necessary to develop approaches to link producers to input and output markets. Higher crop productivity can be sustained in the long run only if efficient markets and commercialization support it. More
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There is great scope for neglected cereals such as sorghum and millet to play an important role in a continent threatened by climate change and population increase. Advanced research will ensure that measures are put in place for sustainable food security and consequently, positive economic growth.
There is great scope for neglected cereals such as sorghum and millet to play an important role in a continent threatened by climate change and population increase
importantly, access to inputs is a critical constraint to improved productivity. Also promotion of valueadding processing would stimulate production, because it would expand the utilization and market potential of crops, and is a key to the greater commercialization of cereals.2
A head of sorghum
Cereal chemists engaged in product development need to be creative to develop new products or processes. This could include finding new uses for under-utilized cereals and cereal by-products; formulating new products from existing ingredients; working on improved processes to manufacture final products; improving the flavor in a product; measuring nutrients; or conducting tests.4 Page 89
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In spite of the long history of cereal processing, many aspects of cereal quality are still poorly understood. Currently, cereal research in Africa is undertaken in universities, and in governmental and private institutions.
Sorghum research in Africa7
The ABS Project is just one of the initiatives focusing on sorghum research in Africa. Sorghum is a uniquely versatile crop with a myriad of advantageous properties, which have attracted the attention of researchers.
An array of food products made from sorghum
A USDA-funded project to genetically engineer sorghum with resistance to the parasitic Striga weed (commonly known as ‘Witch-weed’) is currently underway, involving scientists at the University of California’s Davis and Berkeley campuses and from the Kenyatta University in Nairobi. The project, which began in 2005, is currently testing GM sorghum lines in greenhouses at Kenyatta University, having first conducted genetic transformation of sorghum in the United States. Confined greenhouse trials of the GM sorghum lines began in Kenya in 2009. In Mali and Kenya, Biosciences East and Central Africa (BecA-Hub), with
Chief amongst these projects is the International Sorghum and Millet Collaborative Research Support Program (INTSORMIL CRSP) which has focused on sorghum research and breeding since 1979. Currently research projects are on in both West and Southern Africa to confer resistance to biotic and abiotic stress, and improve grain quality and ‘agronomic performance’. Among the West African collaborators are scientists from various US and West African research bodies, as well as USAID and DuPont Crop Protection. The Universities of the Free State and Pretoria, and the ARC are among the collaborating institutions for its Southern African program.
The proliferation of sorghum research on the African continent has also spread into the area of markerassisted selection (MAS).
Research on Striga resistance through either transformation methodologies or MAS is also underway at research institutions in Eritrea, Kenya and the Sudan through funding from the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (ASARECA).
In Uganda, Makerere University, BIOEARN and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) are collaborating on research in MAS for resistance to biotic stresses. Additional research is being carried out within Uganda to develop transformative techniques using locally adapted sorghum lines.
GM sorghum research is embedded in a paradigm of industrialized agricultural value chains. It is envisioned that the improved sorghum varieties will be put to use in fully integrated processing industries, held together by long-term contracts between growers, suppliers, producers and retailers.
USAID support, is carrying out gene flow studies into the potential environmental impact of the introduction of GM sorghums.
End notes 1. Cereals and Post-harvest Research. Research at NRI. 2010. www.nri.org/research/cereals.htm 2. Cereal and legume system. 2010. http://cgmap.cgiar.org/factsheets/2009-2011/IITA/2/CEREAL+AND+LEGUME+ SYSTEM.htm 3. Hamaker B R (Ed). 2007. Technology of functional cereal products. Purdue University. Woodhead Food Series No. 152. http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=1247 4. Careers in Cereal Chemistry. 2010. http://www.aaccnet.org/membership/careersbrochure.asp 5. Zigomo M. 2009. Climate may halve Southern Africa cereal crop. PlanetArk. 16 April 2009. http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/52451 6. Cooking up innovative ways to bring traditional grains back to the market. Pop goes the cereal. 27 August 2010. http://www.bioversityinternational.org/announcements/pop_goes_the_cereal.html 7. GM Sorghum: Africa’s Golden Rice. Biosafety in Africa Briefing Papers. August 2010 http://www.biosafetyafrica.org.za/images/stories/ dmdocuments/ACB-SorghumGoldenRice.pdf
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Baseline DALYs in Countries of High Sorghum Consumption DALYs due to Deficiency of: Percent of Country Vitamin A Iron Zinc Total DALYs Total DALYS Nigeria 915,395 452,017 688,131 2,055,543 53% Burkina Faso 94,505 58,092 71,071 223,668 6% South Africa 64,996 29,464 21,016 115,476 3% Kenya 143,105 100,633 64,705 308,443 8% Niger 156,612 59,013 101,489 317,114 8% Egypt 107,201 31,303 25,562 164,066 4% Sudan 118,167 86,021 96,808 300,996 8% Chad 81,944 8,886 50,604 141,434 4% Mali 124,896 54,064 94,953 273,913 7% TOTAL 1,806,821 879,493 1,214,339 3,900,653 100% The principal cost components for biofortification relate to the research needed to develop biofortified varieties and implementation. The costs include those of R&D, adaptive breeding, maintenance breeding, and dissemination.3 As an international agricultural research system is in place to develop modern varieties of staple foodstuffs, the research costs are essentially the incremental costs of enhancing micronutrient density. These research costs are likely to be the single largest cost component of biofortification and are a one-time investment, incurred at the outset. It is estimated that costs associated with plant breeding will average about $400,000 per year per crop over a 10-year period, globally. Once biofortified varieties have been developed, in-country trials and local adaptation research costs are incurred, after which routine maintenance breeding to ensure the trait remains stable is undertaken. Where systems for dissemination of modern varieties are in place, such as in South Asia, implementation costs are nil or negligible. Where such systems are underdeveloped, as in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, additional costs are incurred in establishing seed multiplication and delivery systems and creating both markets and consumer demand.1
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Research costs are likely to be the single largest cost component of biofortification and are a one-time investment, incurred at the outset
bidity and mortality outcomes in a single measure. DALYs lost enable the addition of morbidity and mortality outcomes, and are an annual measure of disease burden. Thus, it is the sum of years of life lost and the years lived with disability, i.e. number of years lost because of the preventable
death of an individual, and number of years spent in ill-health because of a preventable disease or condition.3 Quantification of the potential health benefits of biofortification has been done using the DALY framework, in which the current burden of micro-
Mrs Muthenge, a sorgum farmer, with Dr. Florence Wambugu in a sorghum field
In determining cost-effectiveness, DALYs are used to capture both morPage 91
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Cost-benefit analysis of biofortification
nutrient malnutrition is quantified as the number of DALYs lost. The percentage reduction in this burden that can be attributable to biofortification is computed by considering current intake levels of the staple food, the additional amount of micronutrient it is likely to contain, and the percentage of the population that will consume the biofortified food. Placing a dollar value on DALY benefits is always problematic, and a uniform but arbitrary $500 and $1000 per DALY to value benefits have been used by HarvestPlus. This represents the range limits of per capita incomes in most of the developing world.1 Applying the above cost-benefit framework to target crops and countries suggests that the benefits far outweigh the costs; biofortification is a worthwhile investment even where the calculated benefits do not include the enhanced incomes that may result after adopting agronomically superior biofortified varieties. For example, the dissemination of ß-carotene-enhanced orange-fleshed sweet potato in Uganda is likely to cost less than US$5 per DALY saved, assuming coverage is between 25% and 50%. Vitamin A supplementation is estimated to cost US$12 per DALY saved, but this assumes a 75% coverage rate.1 The budgets of the poor are domi nated by food costs. A Chadian family allocates approximately 85% of its budget to food costs. In the event of a food price increase, a corresponding fall in income occurs. Any direct intervention in terms of supplying the micronutrient is less cost-effective than biofortification, for the cost of the latter is offset by the fact that it is a one-time investment with low recurrent costs and the potential exists to internationally share germplasm. A study showed that US$80 million can buy vitamin A supplements for 80 million people living in Asia, out of the 500 million living on less than US$1 per day in the region. On the other hand, a US$80 million investment can result in development of 4–6 biofortified staple crops that can be disseminated throughout the world, and used every year, indefinitely.2
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Table 1: Comparison of cost per DALY with respect to different micronutrient initiatives2 MICRONUTRIENT METHOD Zinc Supplementary Biofortify Vitamin a Supplementary Biofortify (golden rice) Biofortify (sweet potato) Iron Supplementary Biofortify (wheat) Biofortify (rice)
US$/DALY 5-18 0.68-9.0 80-500 3-20 4-10 5-16 0.5-5.5 3-10
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Enhanced nutrient intakes from biofortified crops can translate into improved health outcomes and result in reduced Disability-adjusted life year (DALY) burden
It is evident from Table 1 that biofortification results in reduced cost of DALYs. The bulk (over 70%) of all DALYs lost are due to years of life lost due to premature mortality. For example, the DALYs lost from VAD are high in African countries, where 0.4–0.8% of the population is affected. In other words, between 0.5 and 1% of the national product is lost due to VAD.3 Enhanced nutrient intakes from biofortified crops can translate into improved health outcomes and result in reduced DALY burden. In pessimistic scenarios, costs per DALY saved in Africa for cassava are between $124 and $137, and for maize between $113 and $289. This is a significant reduction in DALYs, with potential prospects of a corresponding increase in socio-economic status. An important question is how costs per DALY saved with biofortification compare with those associated with other micronutrient interventions. Biofortification appears relatively more cost-effective than other interventions in most regions. The consumption of more than one biofortified staple is likely to have an enhanced impact.3
End notes 1. Nestel et al. 2006. ‘Biofortification of Staple Food Crops. Symposium: Food Fortification in Developing Countries’. The Journal of Nutrition. 136:1064–1067. American Society for Nutrition. April 2006 2. Winter-Nelson A. 1990. Economics of Agricultural Technology for Nutritional Health. Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics. University of Illinois. 3. Meenakshi JV et al. 2007. How Cost-Effective is Biofortification in Combating Micronutrient Malnutrition? An Ex-Ante Assessment. August 2007. HarvestPlus Working Paper No. 2
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Dr. Florence Wambugu helps in the preparation of porridge
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Supplementation provides essential micronutrients to a target population, in the form of a vitamin pill or micronutrientrich sprinkle
Traditionally, supplementation and fortification (the process of adding nutrients to foods during processing) have been the two main methods of combating micronutrient malnutrition, which affects millions of people worldwide every year.7 Supplementation is an external nutritional intervention. It provides essential micronutrients to a target population, in the form of a vitamin pill or micronutrient-rich sprinkle. It is targeted at the individual or the family and can be effective on a large scale, as evidenced by Indonesia's and Vietnam's successful elimination of clinical VAD (xerophthalmia). These successes were due in part to regular and extensive supplementation coverage. The use of medicinal approaches (supplementation) is unviable as a long-term solution. Deficiencies may reoccur in times of economic or political crisis, indicating that supplementation efforts may be subject to social instability.2 Commercial fortification strategies are usually directed toward the general population, rather than the individual or the family. It involves nutritionally enriching food products by adding droplets of the
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How biofortification complements other nutritional initiatives
micronutrients (such as iron or folic acid) directly to cereals (wheat, rice, and maize), during the first stage of milling. Considering the high level of cereal consumption globally, the use of commercial fortification has great potential as a strategy to reduce micronutrient malnutrition and has been used effectively to raise micronutrient levels in large populations. However, in developing countries in Africa and parts of Asia, where the food industry is at a rudimentary stage of development and there are few structures to ensure the quality of fortified products, commercial fortification has not been as effective. In areas where micronutrient deficiencies are common, there is no central processing and quality control is often inadequate.2 Furthermore, there have been some difficulties in enforcing mandatory fortification. Since the process is decentralized, it is expensive to monitor. The costs of fortification are high relative to the price of the product, which pushes up prices and tempts both producers and consumers to ignore the rules.1 The conventional strategies of supplementation and commercial fortification address mostly the symptoms rather than the underlying cause of the problem.5
Effectiveness of fortification: A South African Case Study8 To address micronutrient deficiencies, especially among the most vulnerable, South Africa began a food fortification program in 2004, adding iron, zinc, vitamins A and B and folic acid to maize and wheat flour. But, five years on, the project was judged
Table 3: How much can US$75 million buy? 4 Supplementation Vitamin A supplementation for ONE year to 37.5 million pre-school children in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.
Fortification Iron fortification for one year for 375 million persons, about 30% of the population in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.
Biofortification Estimated cost of developing and disseminating iron and zinc-dense rice and wheat varieties for South Asia, which would be available year after year.
a resounding failure. The prevalence of vitamin A, zinc and iron deficiencies in children had increased.
access to effective markets and healthcare systems, which often just do not exist in rural areas.2
Part of the problem is that the RDAs are based on adult and not child food portions. Children, who are more vulnerable, eat less and so need more highly fortified food. Partly, the problem is also that cooking can destroy the vitamins. But, most importantly, it is because chemical isolates have a significantly lower bioavailability — the extent to which someone's body can absorb the micronutrient — than whole foods. The iron used in the South African fortification program, for example, has a bioavailability of less than 2%.
Biofortification versus conventional fortification
Biofortification is also fairly cost effective after the initial large research investment and, in fact, where seeds can be distributed, the costs of growing biofortified foods are nil or negligible. Unlike the recurring costs of traditional supplementation and fortification programs, a one-time investment in a biofortified crop can generate new varieties for farmers to grow for years to come (see Table 3). It is this multiplier aspect of biofortification, across time and distance, that makes it so cost-effective an investment as opposed to supplementation which is comparatively expensive and requires continued financing over time, and may be jeopardized by fluctuating political interests.3,4
Unlike commercial fortification, biofortification does not rely on food processing or the milling process to incorporate micronutrients into the diet. Biofortification differs from ordinary fortification because it focuses on making plant foods more nutritious as the plants grow, rather than adding nutrients to the foods when they are being processed. Although the conventional approaches have been successful when dealing with the urban poor, they tend to require
Biofortified crops offer a rural-based intervention that, by design, initially reach the more remote populations, which comprise a majority of the undernourished in many countries, and then extend to urban populations as production surpluses are marketed. In this way, this strategy complements fortification and supplementation programs, which work best in centralized urban areas and then reach into rural areas and only into those areas with good infrastructure.6
End notes 1. Pray C and Huang J. 2008. Biofortification for China: Political Responses to Food Fortification and GM Technology, Interest Groups and Possible Strategies. AgBioForum. Volume 10, Number 3, Article 5. www.agbioforum.org/ 2. Campos-Bowers MH and Wittenmyer BT. 2007. Biofortification in China: Policy and Practice. BioMed Central Ltd. www.health-policy-systems.com/content/5/1/10 3. Biofortification. Wikipedia. 2010. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofortification 4. Why biofortification makes sense. Learn More. HarvestPlus. 2010. www.harvestplus.org/content/learn-more 5. Pocket K No. 27: Biotechnology and Biofortification: Intelligent Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications. May 2010. www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/pocket/27/default/asp 6. Bouis H. 2008. Global alliance to biofortify food staple crops to improve human nutrition. IFPRI. www.ifpri. org/event/ 7. Biofortification: A Cost-effective approach. IFPRI Forum. March 30, 2010. http://www.ifpri.org/publication/howcost-effective-biofortification-combating-micronutrient-malnutrition 8. Douglas G. Nutrients must be ‘bioavailable’. SciDev.net. February 16, 2010 www.scidev.net/en/editor-letters/ micronutrients-must-be-bioavailable.html
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
ABS management tours the gene flow experiment at ICRISAT’s KARI fields in Kenya
Micronutrient deficiency also has many invisible economic effects that are widely underestimated, because they sap the energy of working people and limit the learning ability of children, costing billions of dollars in lost productivity in developing countries.29 Nutritional enhancement would benefit African nations’ economies in the following ways:
treating diseases, could be avoided through adequate nutrition, thus lowering health care costs; • governments’ spending on primary and secondary education
could yield much higher returns if children benefit from healthy nutrition during the critical first two years of their lives to enable healthy brain development.28,29
A journalist takes notes during a tour of an ICRISAT sorghum field
• farmers and other laborers would exert more effort, leading to bigger harvests and increased production and hence, increased contribution to the national product; • well-nourished citizens would help avoid waste in public spending because their ability to achieve their physical and intellectual potential would be greater; • scarce resources in the health sector, which are often spent on Page 95
LOOKING FORWARD KEY ISSUES ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS THE ABS CONSORTIUM ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT INTRODUCTION PROJECT LEADERSHIP
Projected African economic benefit from nutritional enhancement
Projected socio-economic impact of biofortification
A Burkinabe woman prepares sorghum biscuits
Six out of the eight objectives in the MDGs are related to micronutrient deficiency. Together with conventional interventions, such as supplementation and industrial fortification, biofortification of crops with essential micronutrients could greatly contribute to achieving these MDGs.3 Table 2 summarizes the potential economic and environmental impact of biofortification. Table 2: Summary of biofortification impact 2, 4 IMPACT
HOW BIOFORTIFICATION ACHIEVES IMPACT
Reduce child mortality
Reduces under-five mortality and morbidity; infant mortality rates may fall from improved micronutrient status of mothers during pregnancy.
Improve maternal health
Reduces mortality and morbidity of mothers.
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Improves work productivity, mental and psychomotor performance, and appetite, and promotes faster growth. Biofortification targets the rural poor, in particular, who consume large amounts of food staples and little else.
Improve learning skills
Improves cognitive and psychomotor abilities. Children who do well in school are more likely to want to stay in school and their parents are more likely to support their education.
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
The severity, mortality from, and perhaps incidence of HIV-AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases are exacerbated by poor micronutrient status.
Ensure environmental sustainability
Roots of biofortified crops are not only more disease resistant, but also better able to penetrate deficient subsoils, and so make use of the moisture and minerals contained in subsoils. This reduces the need for fertilizers and improves drought tolerance. In addition, fewer herbicides and pesticides would have to be used. These characteristics benefit those whose soils are deficient in trace minerals on rainfed land and who are thus among the poorest farmers
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Higher yields per hectare make farming more efficient and productive on limited land area. Farmers can produce increasing amounts of food without increasing the use of arable land; this has a major impact on protecting wildlife habitats.
Reduced use of energy and fertilizers
Biotech crops have helped reduce the use of pesticides for several economically important crops, contributing to reductions in fuel, water and packaging, which are eliminated from the manufacturing, distribution and application processes. The availability of biotech crops can significantly reduce the amount of nitrogen farmers apply to fields, which can increase on-farm productivity and profitability while decreasing the potential environmental impact from nitrogen fertilizer use.
Mitigation of climate change and reducing greenhouse gases
Biotech crops are already contributing to reducing CO2 emissions by precluding the need for ploughing a significant portion of cropped land, conserving soil, particularly moisture, reducing pesticide spraying as well as sequestering CO2. Permanent savings in carbon dioxide emissions through reduced use of fossil-based fuels since fewer insecticide and herbicide sprays are required
Increases productivity
This is particularly important in regions of the world which suffer from difficult climatic conditions. Better quality of life for farm workers.
Higher farm incomes
Higher profits for farmers and higher incomes for workers translate to increased productivity and thus, increased contribution to the national income or GDP. It is evident that the uptake of biofortified crops can result in improved economic performance for the country. Biofortification has even been touted as one of the most important steps for developing nations to break out of extreme poverty. By reducing the number of DALYs lost due to undernutrition, biofortification could help developing nations to boost their economic output and prosperity5.
The adoption of nutritionally improved crops will help improve the health and well-being of the world's poorest people, but this advancement will only be possible if political differences over the development and use of transgenic crops are set aside, and their deployment and cultivation is regulated according to robust, science-based criteria.1
Endnotes 1. Naqvi S. 2009. ‘Transgenic multivitamin corn through biofortification of endosperm with three vitamins representing three distinct metabolic pathways’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. May 12, 2009. Vol 106, No. 19; pp 7762–7767 www.pnas. org/content/106/19/7762.full 2. Biofortified crops for improved human nutrition. A challenge program proposal by CIAT and IFPRI. 2 September 2002. www.cgiar.org/pdf/biofortification.pdf 3. Crop Biofortification, Key to Meeting MDGs. Crop Biotech Update. ISAAA. 22 January 2010. www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=5355
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This advancement will only be possible if political differences over the development and use of transgenic crops are set aside, and their deployment and cultivation is regulated according to robust, science-based criteria
4. Socio-Economic Impacts of Green Biotechnology. EuropaBio. 2010. www. europabio.org/positions/GBE/ 5. Nagel J. 2010. The Role of Biofortification in Combating Undernutrition. The Road to Speedveganism. 20 April 2010. www. speedvegan.blogspot.com/2010/04/
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Improved water and land use
Impact of biofortification on agronomic productivity
ABS2 confined field trial in Puerto Rico, USA (Photo Credit: Pioneer)
Good nutritional balance is as important to disease resistance and stress tolerance in plants as it is in humans. Micronutrient deficiency in plants greatly increases their susceptibility to diseases, especially fungal root diseases. Efficiency in the uptake of micronutrients from the soil improves disease resistance in plants and reduces fungicide use. Breeding for micronutrient efficiency can confer resistance to root diseases, which had been previously thought unattainable.1 Roots of plant genotypes that are efficient in mobilizing surrounding external minerals are better able to penetrate mineral-deficient soils and so make use of the moisture and minerals in the soils. This reduces the need for fertilizers and irrigation. Plants with deeper root systems are more drought resistant. Micronutrient-dense seeds are associated with greater seedling vigor, which in turn, is associated with higher plant yield. The traits of efficient uptake of trace minerals from the soil and of loading of those trace minerals into the seed are compatible with breeding for high yields, and these traits can be incorporated into the best-yielding varieties.1 Developing biofortified seeds containing higher levels of micronutrients can improve crop yields when planted in soils lacking in micronu-
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trients. Additionally, micronutrientdense seeds can significantly reduce seeding rates resulting in substantial savings to farmers in seed costs alone (e.g., zinc-enriched wheat grain can reduce seeding rates from over 200 kg per hectare to 150 kg per hectare when planted in zincpoor soils). Furthermore, such seeds could benefit livestock production in regions with micronutrient-poor soils. Using these enriched staples (e.g., maize) in livestock rations could lower input costs to farmers in these areas because they would no longer have to rely on feed supplements to supply these nutrients. For poor farmers, productivity benefits of using enriched seeds for both crops and livestock become an important reason to use the enriched seeds irrespective of their effects on improving human health.2 Biofortification will have important spin-off effects for increasing farm productivity in developing countries in an environmentally beneficial way. Farmers prefer mineral-packed seeds because these trace minerals help plants resist disease and other environmental stresses. Moreover, a higher proportion of seedlings survive, initial growth is more rapid, and ultimately yields are higher.3
End notes 1. Biofortified crops for improved human nutrition. A challenge program proposal by CIAT and IFPRI. 2 September 2002. www.cgiar.org/pdf/biofortification.pdf 2. Welch R. 2005. Biofortification – A Sustainable Agricultural Approach to Addressing Micronutrient Malnutrition. USDA. Agricultural Research Service. www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/ 3. Nestel et al. 2006. ‘Biofortification of Staple Food Crops. Symposium: Food Fortification in Developing Countries’. The Journal of Nutrition. 136:1064-1067. American Society for Nutrition. April 2006
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Biofortification will have important spinoff effects for increasing farm productivity in developing countries in an environmentally beneficial way
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Looking Forward Scientists inspect seedlings at KARI
• Phase Two: Building upon success • An Interview With Dr. Zuo-Yu Zhao • Development of markets and the acceptance challenge • Future food, feed and industrial utilization of ABS2
Phase Two: Building upon Success
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Phase II will especially benefit populations that are vulnerable to micronutrient deficiencies
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The overall goal of the ABS project Phase II is to build upon the success of Phase I and develop and deploy highly nutritious and digestible sorghum first to farmers and end-users in Africa who rely on sorghum as their staple food, and then reach out to the 300 million people in Africa. As the ABS Continuum diagram (below) shows, Phase II of the project will focus on developing sorghum seed varieties that will aid farmers to produce grain containing increased levels of essential amino acids, especially lysine, increased levels of Vitamins A and more available iron and zinc. Farmer households will be educated on the use of healthier food products derived from ABS grain while the project helps develop enterprisedriven consumer products to provide additional incomes for small and medium African enterprises. The project
will especially benefit populations that are vulnerable to micronutrient deficiencies. This phase will be managed by a new Consortium in consultation with donors and stakeholders. An initial meeting was held in August 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya. At the same time, a Concept Note was being developed for submission to appropriate investors. Funds saved from Phase I are being used to kick start Phase II and to continue with some of the activities started in Phase I. Africa Harvest continues to provide leadership for this project while Pioneer has agreed to support technology development while new donors are identified. Equally, the BMGF has indicated willingness to provide support to ensure smooth transition between the two phases.
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
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Since Dr Zhao’s major research has been technology development of maize genetic transformation, he was involved in sorghum research way before the ABS Project started
Dr. Zuo-Yu Zhao began his career as a scientist in crop biotechnology at Pioneer Hi-Bred International – a DuPont company – in 1990. In less than 10 years, he was promoted as Senior Scientist; in 2009, he became a Research Fellow, the highest rank in research in the company. Since his major research has been technology development of maize genetic transformation, he was involved in sorghum research way before the ABS Project started. He shares his thoughts about life, his career and the ABS Project.
How it all started: With a Ph.D. degree in Biology from Illinois State University in USA and post-doctoral research in Molecular Biology at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, “one of the best biological labs in the world”. His career focus: Product development of genetic modified corn. Although he confesses that he has a broad background and extensive working experience in plant biology: “ ... plant breeding, plant genetics and cytogenetics, plant molecular biology and plant biotechnology”. Pioneer’s technology contribution to the ABS Project: The biggest contribution is the initial technology donation. However the company’s hands-on leadership in technology
development of the project since it was started five years ago, is often not fully appreciated. For example, it was Pioneer that contributed technology and expertise that helped in areas such as achieving high throughput sorghum genetic transformation using Agrobacterium, improvements in zinc and iron bioavailability as well as the enhancement of pro-vitamin A bioavailability in sorghum grain. Other technology contributions related to sorghum protein quality improvement, GMO sorghum research in contained greenhouse and CFTs at multiple locations in USA, gene stacking and GMO leading event production and selection, sorghum breeding and transgenic trait integration as well as providing
expertise in GMO product biosafety and regulation. The training of African scientists in leadership and plant biotech, sorghum breeding, regulatory and genetic marker system for trait integration as well as biosafety and regulatory is well acknowledged. The precursor to the ABS Project was high-lysine sorghum technology. Why was this unique? The high-lysine GMO sorghum provided a useful tool and working model system for ABS Project to get started in a number of areas before ABS generated its own GMO sorghum. Without the high-lysine sorghum, the project would have been delayed for at least for two to three years. The learning curve, especially in biosafety and
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An Interview with Dr. Zuo-Yu Zhao
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The ABS Project has demonstrated and will be continuously demonstrating the advantages of nutritional improvement in sorghum and the new opportunities that this crop will provide in the new environment.
regulatory policy – using the highlysine sorghum, has helped avoid many delays. What has Pioneer learned? Pioneer provided opportunities for African scientists to get trained in the most advanced biotechnology (strategies) ... in the past five years. But as a learning company, we know knowledge flows both ways. Pioneer employees used this opportunity to learn about how things operate in Africa. We now have a better understanding of the urgent need for new technologies in the continent. Apart from making friends and establishing solid relationship and networks with the African scientific society and other communities, Pioneer employees have also learned about different cultures and traditions. Thoughts on PABS: Pioneer has made very solid commitment on ABS Phase II. Our President, Paul Schikler, made a clear statement that we would continue to support and work together with African partners on the ABS Project during Phase II. He said the company will continue to provide in-kind donations for research, while the project puts together a bouquet of funders. Dr. Marc Albertsen, the current PI of ABS Project, will continue to lead the project and all of the ABS activities at Pioneer will continue. Roadmap for Phase II: The ABS Project has developed a unique roadmap, which will be the general blueprint for leading the ABS Project into the future. The uniqueness of this roadmap is that it is a compre-
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hensive working guideline combining the major functional areas for ABS product development and product deployment. What has been achieved so far: Sorghum is one of the most important crops worldwide. However, compared to corn, soybean, rice and wheat, it is the crop with low nutrition and poor digestibility. It has had the least investment as far as research and improvement are concerned. The ABS Project is therefore a ground-breaking project in sorghum research and nutrition improvement. ABS research and sorghum’s commercial viability in Africa: Sorghum originated in Africa and people in Africa have relied on this crop for a long time. It is also called the poor man’s crop. However, sorghum has some important characteristics such as natural drought- and heat-tolerance. It also grows well in poor soils. Global warming, weather changes and especially water scarcity will catapult this crop to the position of one of the most important crops in the world. In Africa, the value of sorghum as food and feed as well as industry materials in the future could completely change it from a poor man’s crop to a high-value crop. The ABS Project has demonstrated and will be continuously demonstrating the advantages of nutritional improvement in sorghum and the new opportunities that this crop will provide in the new environment. The above comments are Zhao’s personal opinions and do not represent those of Pioneer or the ABS Pioneer Team.
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
US Senator Daschle (USA) and his entourage tour the KARI greenhouse containing ABS2 events
A successful biofortification strategy requires widespread adoption of the crops by farmers and consumers, and this presents several important challenges.1 The farmers' criteria for changing varieties include food and income security, risk factors that are balanced against increased farm revenue through increased production or improved production efficiency and economics as a consequence of adopting a new technology. Added economic value from improved end-use quality is also likely to be essential for adoption. This means that crop- and environment-specific traits relevant to adoption have to be considered in the breeding strategy for biofortified crops and end-product definition. For example, seed zinc concentration in wheat is closely related with stand establishment and final grain yield in zinc-deficient soils.2 Two factors are critical to farmer adoption: (i) whether the trait is visible, and
(ii) infrastructural development. Public acceptance is also essential, especially if the new trait perceptibly changes the qualities of the crop, such as color, taste, and dry matter content.1 Adoption of biofortified crops with visible traits will require that both producers and consumers actively accept the sensory change in addition to equivalent productivity and end-use features. Crops with invisible traits, such as higher concentrations of iron or zinc, do not require behavior change per se because the augmented levels will not result in sensory changes. Thus, productivity and improved end-use features such as flour quality are very important. In terms of infrastructure development, in Asia, for example, market networks and information flow operate reasonably efficiently, and once a new improved variety is released, it is rapidly adopted, as evidenced in the Green Revolution. In contrast, infrastructure in Africa is poor.
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This means that crop- and environmentspecific traits relevant to adoption have to be considered in the breeding strategy for biofortified crops and endproduct definition. Page 103
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Development of markets and acceptance
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Research should therefore address farmer concerns, and aim to breed varieties that not only have higher micronutrient levels, but also are more resistance to disease and adverse growing conditions
Consequently, significant assistance will be needed to determine, understand, and identify the actions needed to overcoming constraints to farmer adoption. This will include the use of farmer participatory breeding methods to identify the locally adapted biofortified genotypes that best suit producerâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;consumer needs, ensuring good access to planting material through the development of seed systems and the development of markets for both the harvested biofortified crop(s) and any processed products made from them, such as complementary foods.2 Participatory plant breeding, in which scientists take farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perspectives and preferences into account during the breeding process, will be more costeffective than confining breeding to research stations.8
Biofortified crop varieties must perform as well as, or better than current varieties; otherwise farmers will not grow them. Research should therefore address farmer concerns, and aim to breed varieties that not only have higher micronutrient levels, but also are more resistant to disease and adverse growing conditions.5 Where scientists can combine high micronutrient content with high yield, farmer adoption and market success of nutritionally improved varieties is virtually guaranteed. In fact, research showing that high levels of minerals in seeds also aid plant nutrition has fuelled expectations of increased productivity in biofortified strains.8 Adequate information programs will play an essential role in ensuring acceptance. Wide dissemination of the technology, a requisite for success,
also relies on good market networks and channels for the dissemination of agricultural information. The lack of agricultural infrastructure in some developing countries, especially in Africa, is a significant challenge for adoption of new biofortified varieties.1 A common problem in many developing countries is the lack of delivery systems to get products to the poorest people. This constraint must be overcome through the seed-based technologies inherent in the biofortification approach. When households grow micronutrient-rich crops, the delivery system for micronutrients is built into the existing food production and marketing process. Little intervention or investment is needed once farmers adopt the new seed. Moreover, micronutrient-rich seed can easily be saved and shared by even the poorest households.8 Public acceptance baseline studies must be conducted to identify existing information gaps, the target groups, existing and potential communication systems and timely commercialization. Through the surveys, the most effective communication tools can be identified. These range from direct political intervention, focus groups, seminars and conferences to media strategies involving webbased strategies, radio, television and the print media. Finally, endorsement for the project has to be sought from
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
A major advantage of biofortification is that farmer or consumer behavior does not have to change. The crops are already widely produced and consumed by poor households in the developing world.4 Of course, in rural Africa, as anywhere else, health claims alone will not 'sell' new varieties to farmers and consumers. Farmers ask me: “Will it require a different way of cultivation? Will it bring me more income? How good will it taste?”7 Both farmers and consumers must accept the new variety as an important part of what they produce and consume, so that it becomes a cost effective intervention. The greater the coverage rates of biofortified crops, the higher the magnitude of impact. But this depends both on farmers’ and consumers’ acceptance of biofortified staples and the availability of infrastructure for dissemination. Clearly, these are key parameters for impact.6
End notes 1. Pocket K No. 27: Biotechnology and Biofortification: Intelligent Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications. May 2010. www.isaaa.org/resources/ publications/pocket/27/default/asp 2. Nestel et al. 2006. Biofortification of Staple Food Crops. Symposium: Food Fortification in Developing Countries. The Journal of Nutrition. 136:1064–1067. American Society for Nutrition. April 2006
LOOKING FORWARD KEY ISSUES ABS PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS THE ABS CONSORTIUM ABS: AN AFRICA HARVEST PROJECT INTRODUCTION PROJECT LEADERSHIP
national, regional and continental fora. Such endorsement will speed up government acceptance and preempt possible anti-GM opposition to the project.3
ABS2 events growing in a Pioneer greenhouse (Photo Credit: Pioneer)
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Farmers ask me: “Will it require a different way of cultivation? Will it bring me more income? How good will it taste?”
A confined field trial of ABS2 events in Puerto Rico (Photo Credit: Pioneer)
3. www.biosorghum.org 4. Harnessing Agricultural Technology to Improve the Health of the Poor. Plant Breeding to Combat Micronutrient Deficiency. 2002. International Food Policy Research Institute. 5. Islam Y and McClafferty B. Nutrition Improvement Programme. Nutriview. January 2009. DSM Nutritional Products Ltd. Switzerland www.dsm.com/en_US/ downloads/dnp 6. Meenakshi JV. 2009. ‘Cost-effectiveness of biofortification’. Biofortification Best Practice Paper: New Advice from CCo8. Copenhagen Consensus Centre. 7. ‘New Crops Tackle Hidden Hunger’. Spore. CTA. 2008. www.spore.cta.int/ 8. Biofortification. A New Paradigm for Agriculture and a Tool for Improving Human Health. 2004. HarvestPlus. www. harvestzinc.org/pdf/
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Future food, feed and industrial utilization
Dr. Florence Wambugu (2nd from left) inspects a head of sorghum
Sorghum as a Food Crop In arid, less-developed regions of the world sorghum is an important food crop especially for subsistence farmers. Immature sorghum grains are sometimes roasted whole. Grits made from sorghum are also cooked like rice in many countries. Sorghum boiled like rice is called kichuri in Bangladesh, lehta wagen in Botswana, kaoliang mifan in China, nifro in Ethiopia and oka baba in Nigeria. A sorghum product similar to rice called sori has been developed in Mali. In many West African countries, sorghum and pearl millet grits are steamed to produce a coarse and uniformly gelatinized product called couscous. Couscous can be consumed fresh or can be dried; in its dried form it can be stored for more than six months. The dried product can be reconstituted in water, milk or sauce. It is used as a convenience food in the Sahel. 3 Page 106
Porridges are the major foods in several African countries. They are either thick or thin in consistency. These porridges carry different local names, like for instance thick porridges are called uguli (Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda), to (Burkina Faso, the Niger), tuwo (Nigeria), etc. Sorghum flour, sorghum malt, pigeon pea and groundnut are mixed in different proportions to improve the nutritional value of traditional porridges.3
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In Uganda, a sour porridge called bushera can be fermented into an alcoholic drink. Fermented porridge is made in several regions in Africa. In the Sudan, a thin fermented porridge called nasha is prepared with sorghum. Ogi, a popular fermented porridge in Nigeria, is prepared using sorghum, millet and maize in various proportions. Flat breads are made by baking dough made with flour and water on a hot
Sorghum boiled like rice is called ‘kichuri’ in Bangladesh, ‘lehta wagen’ in Botswana, ‘kaoliang mifan’ in China, ‘nifro’ in Ethiopia and ‘oka baba’ in Nigeria Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Though beverages are not major foods, they serve as a source of energy in several countries. Thin fermented porridges are commonly prepared and used as a drink in African countries. They are considered foods and provide important nutrients. Traditional beer, amgba, and a wine, affouk, prepared from sorghum in Cameroon were found to be nutritionally superior to sorghum flour. Traditional opaque beer, for which sorghum and millets are valuable raw materials, is a popular beverage in several countries in Africa. It is called chibuku in Zimbabwe, impeke in Burundi, dolo in Mali and Burkina Faso and pito in Nigeria.3 In recent years, sorghum has been used as a substitute for other grain in beer. In southern and eastern
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Traditional beer, amgba, and a wine, affouk, prepared from sorghum in Cameroon were found to be nutritionally superior to sorghum flour
Africa, sorghum is used to produce beer called “Eagle Lager”. In November 2006, Lakefront Brewery of Milwaukee, Wisconsin launched its "New Grist" gluten-free beer, brewed with sorghum and rice. It is one of its most successful lines. It is aimed at those with celiac disease, although its low-carbohydrate content also makes it popular with health-minded drinkers. On December 20, 2006, Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis, Missouri announced the release of their new "Redbridge" beer. This beer is gluten-free and produced with sorghum as the main ingredient. Redbridge is the first sorghum-based beer to be nationally distributed in the United States.2 A South African company produces “Morvite”, a pre-cooked sorghum with added vitamins. It is a dry powder to which one adds water or milk to make an instant porridge.
In Nigeria, a wide variety of nonalcoholic sorghum malt beverages are very popular. These include both bottled malt drinks such as “Malta”, and malt and cocoa-based, powder-based drinks such as “Milo”.11
Non-culinary uses of sorghum Once the sorghum grain is harvested, stem and leaves of some varieties have been used to make thatches, fences, baskets, brushes and brooms. Often, the stalks are used as fuel. Medieval Islamic texts list medical uses for the plant. The seeds and stalks are fed to cattle and poultry. In the US, sorghum grain is used primarily as a maize substitute for livestock feed because their nutritional values are very similar.2 Sorghum straw (stem fibers) can also be made into excellent wall board for
Kenyan school children drink sorghum porridge
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pan or griddle. These flat breads are known by many local names: roti and chapatti in India, tuwo in parts of Nigeria, tortillas in Central America, etc. Injera (Ethiopia) and kisra (the Sudan) are the major fermented breads made from sorghum flour. Germinated sorghum flour, called "power flour" (kimea in the United Republic of Tanzania), reduces the viscosity of the product and makes it suitable for use as a weaning food. Sorghum and millets are used in weaning foods in countries like Ethiopia, India, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda.3
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Sorghum straw (stem fibers) can also be made into excellent wall board for house building, as well as biodegradable packaging.
house building, as well as biodegradable packaging. It does not accumulate static electricity, so it is also being used in packaging materials for sensitive electronic equipment. Currently, 12% of the grain sorghum produced in the US is used to make ethanol biofuel. An Associated Press article claims that sorghum-sapbased ethanol has four times the energy yield as corn-based ethanol, but is on par with sugarcane. The sap could be used to make ethanol while the grain is consumed as food. 2
End notes 1. Sorghum. Wikipedia. 2010. www.en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum 2. Commercial sorghum. Wikipedia. 2010. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_sorghum 3. www.fao/docrep/t0818e/ 4. Board on Science and Technology for International Development. Lost Crops of Africa: Volume 1: Grains. 1996. National Research Council. National Academy Press. 5. Leder I. 2004. Sorghum and millets in Cultivated Plants, Primarily as Food Sources. Department of Technology. Central Food Research Institute. Hungary 6. Cooking around the world. All about sorghum. 2010. www.theworldwidegourmet.com/products/articles/sorghumculinary-file/ 7. Ogbonna A C. 2007. Sorghum: An Environmentally-Friendly Food and Industrial Grain in Nigeria. Department of Food Science and Technology. University of Uyo. Nigeria 8. Small farmers optimistic about increasing earnings from outgrowers’ contracts Business Daily. 5 March 2010. www.businessdailyafrica.com/-/539546/873220/-/view/ printVersion/-/o7qjsfz/-/index.html 9. Sorghum responses, inorganic fertiliser and farmyard manure. 2009. www.kari.org/ fileadmin/publications/10thproceedings/
10. Food security in Africa. Inter Academy Council. www.interacademycouncil. net/?id=8529 11. Taylor JRN. 2009. Overview: Importance of Sorghum in Africa. Department of Food Science. University of Pretoria. South Africa. www.afripro.org.uk/papers/Paper01Taylor.pdf 12. Dicko M. 2006. ‘Sorghum Grain As Human Food In Africa: Relevance Of Content Of Starch And Amylase Activities’. African Journal of Biotechnology. Vol 5(5) pp 384–395. 1 March 2006 13. Trouch et al. 2008. ‘Farmers and sorghum in Nicaragua’s Northern region’. LEISA Magazine. December 2008. www.ileia. leias.info/ 14. Valley P. 2006. ‘Climate change will be a catastrophe for Africa’. The Independent. 16 May 2006 www.independent.co.uk/ environment 15. Kebakile MM.2003. Consumer attitudes to sorghum foods in Botswana. www. afripro.org/uk/papers/Paper12Kebakile. pdf 16. Kevin R, Majid M and Lavinson FJ. 2002. ‘Special Focus: the Bangladesh Sorghum Experiment’. Food Policy. Vol 5(1). pp 61–63. www.sciencedirect.com 17. Rohrbach, Mupan da K and Seleka T. 2000. Commercialisation of sorghum in Botswana. www.dspace.icrisat.ac.in/ dspace/bitstream
Africa Harvest Director Gisele D’Almeida, CEO Florence Wambugu, External Advisory Board Chairman Dr. Matin Qaim, and Prof. John Taylor (University of Pretoria) sample food products made from sorghum
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Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Acronyms and abbreviations
AATF ABS AH AHBFI ARC ASARECA BC+ BecA BMGF BRN C&IM CFT CO2 Co-PI CORAF/WECARD CSIR DALY EAB EC EPAR FAO FARA FTO GC GCGH GCI GM GMO GURT HIA HIV-AIDS IAR IBC ICRISAT IFAD INERA INTSORMIL CRSP IP IPMG KARI KEPHIS kg MAB
African Agriculture Technology Foundation Africa Biofortified Sorghum Africa Harvest Africa Harvest Biotechnology Foundation International Agricultural Research Council Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa BioCassava plus Biosciences East and Central Africa Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Bio-safety Resource Network Communication and Issues Management Confined field trial Carbon dioxide Co-principal investigator West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Disability-adjusted life year External advisory board European Community Evans School Policy Analysis and Research Group Food and Agriculture Organization Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa Freedom to operate Grand Challenge Grand Challenges for Global Health Grain Crops Institute Genetically modified/genetic modification Genetically modified organism Genetic User Restriction Technology High impact area Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus and Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome Institute of Agricultural Research Institutional Biosafety Committee International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics International Fund for Agricultural Development Institut de lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles International Sorghum and Millet Collaborative Research Support Programme Intellectual property Intellectual Property Management Group Kenya Agricultural Research Institute Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service kilogram Marker- assisted- breeding Page 109
MAS MDG NABDA NARI NARS NBC NCD NCCT NEMA NEPAD PAC PC PDCAAS PDG PI PSC R&D RDA RFP RNI SLU TC TDG TLMG UCB UP USA USAID USDA VAD WHO Îźg
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Marker-assisted selection Millennium development goal National Biotechnology Development Agency National Agricultural Research Institute National agricultural research system National Biosafety Committee Non-communicable diseases Nigeria Country Communication Team National Environment Management Authority New Partnership for Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Development Public Acceptance and Communication Project coordinator Protein digestibility corrected amino acid score Product development group Principal investigator Project Steering Committee Research and Development Recommended dietary allowance Request for proposals Recommended nutrient intake Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Tissue Culture Technology development group Team leaders management group University of California Berkeley University of Pretoria United States of America United States Agency for International Development United States Department of Agriculture Vitamin A deficiency World Health Organisation microgram
Africa Biofortified Sorghum Project: Five-year Progress Report 2010
Above: Sorghum farmers celebrate life, and below, delegates celebrate the end of ABS Phase 1.