the biosorghum 5 year report

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)

Cont

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PROJECT LEADERSHIP 1• Executive Summary 2• Foreword 5• Technology Achievements 7• Thinking Ahead 9• Excellence in dealing with complexities 11

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

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

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

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

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

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, WestlandsPO Box 642Village Market 00621Nairobi, KenyaTel: + 254 20 444 1113Fax: + 254 20 444 1121Email: [email protected]

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WASHINGTON DCBlake BuildingFarragut Square1025 Connecticut Avenue NWSuite 1012Washington DC 20036, USATel: +1 202 828 1215Fax: +1 202 857 9799E-mail: [email protected]

Or visit the Africa Harvest website: www.africaharvest.org

TORONTOScotia Plaza40 King Street WestSuite 3100Toronto, ON, Canada M5H 3Y2Tel: +1 416-865-6600 Fax: +1 [email protected]

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.inPrinting: Pragati Offset Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, India • www.pragati.com

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• ExecutiveSummary• Foreword• Technologyachievements• Thinkingahead• Excellenceindealingwithcomplexities

A woman and children stand in a sorghum field

This report covers the various aspects of Phase I of the Nutritionally Enhanced Sorghum for the Arid and Semi-Arid Tropi-cal 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 busi-ness. 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.

“In2005,AfricaHarvestastheleadinstitutionintheABSprojectformedaconsortiumof11institutionsthatwasawardedagrantbytheBillandMelindaGatesFoundation

Executive Summary

ABS 2 events in a confined field trial (Photo credit: Pioneer)

AfricaBiofortifiedSorghumProject:Five-yearProgressReport2010Page2

“AnimportantaccomplishmentwastheproductdevelopmentroadmapthatplannedalltheactivitiesfromvectorconstructiontoseeddistributionoftheABSproduct

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 feasi-ble, necessitating the use of genetic modification techniques. Further, there was limited information avail-able on sorghum transformation. Also, the techniques used to ge-netically 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 ad-dition, new sorghum markers needed to be developed that could efficiently trace the ABS genes through research and development(R&D).

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,

ensuring that the consortium met targets for the first year.

During the second year (July 2006–June 2007), research work was initi-ated. The Technology Development Group (TDG) began genetic trans-formation work and the Product Development Group (PDG) started collecting sorghum germplasm and analyzing sorghum lines. The genet-ic research work progressed slower than expected, as the transformation rate was poor because of technologi-cal 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 con-ducted as scheduled. A biosafety lev-el-2 greenhouse was also constructed and a large public meeting in South Africa promoted the project amongst government officials and the scien-tific 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-

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A scientist inspects greenhouse events in KARI

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licity campaign around a permit ap-plication in South Africa. In response, the project communication and pub-lic 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 transfor-mation efficiency of sorghum; while the PDG produced data on nutrients and digestibility of cooked and proc-essed sorghum foodstuffs as well as conducted field studies on hybridiza-tion, out-crossing and gene flow.

The project also decided to focus on fewer countries. The renewed focus meant that the technology develop-ment work was likely to be complet-ed within the five years while prod-uct 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 gener-ated new IP that increased the ef-ficiency of sorghum transformation.

New genetic marker was used that was more suitable for the regula-tory 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 digesti-bility revealed that the product was likely to perform as expected. Addi-tionally, 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 distribu-tion of the ABS product. It indicated that technology development was to be completed at the end of the fifth year thus leading to product devel-opment 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 nu-trition and digestibility complement.

The ABS Project is pursuing phase two project objectives by first sourc-ing development partners that would support the expanded work to devel-op sustainable ABS varieties for dif-ferent 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 molecu-lar 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.

Theprojectalsodecidedtofocusonfewercountries.Thisrenewedfocusmeantthetechnologydevelopmentworkwaslikelytobecompletedwithinthefiveyearswhileproductdevelopmentworkneededtobefundedinalaterphase

“ A grain of golden sorghum


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 excel-lent work that the foundation is involved in. Being a firm believer that leader-ship 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).

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 technologi-cal 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, over-coming 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.

From the management’s viewpoint, Africa Harvest CEO, Dr. Florence Wambu-gu, epitomizes good leadership with the unique ability to make “high” science deliver to rural communities.

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

AfricaHarvestisthekindofinstitutionthatisabletomovesciencefromthelabtotheplate

Dr Moctar Toure, Chairman of Africa Harvest Board of Directors

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Foreword...........................................Dr Moctar Toure

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poor in Africa achieve food security, economic well-being and sustain-able 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.

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 en-vironment in the world of non-profit organizations equips it to do so. I am encouraged by the foundation’s robust organizational structure, fi-nancial management and project ex-ecution capacity.

We will be implementing two recent Board-commissioned reviews that will bring about critical institutional changes designed to broaden the

foundation’s scope. More important-ly, we are currently implementing an institutional strategic plan expected to deliver the required growth. This strategy will unlock institutional val-ue and consolidate Africa Harvest as the preferred development partner in Africa.

My emphasis on Africa Harvest’s leadership and the on-going strate-gic changes is deliberate, since it will have a major impact on the future of the ABS Project. The Board of Di-rectors 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 end-users 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 varie-ties and hybrids for use by farmers.

These important efforts must be un-derpinned 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 re-source poor farmers using the whole value chain approach. The founda-tion has refined this approach over the last decade through the Tis-sue 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 sustain-able rural development. We believe the same can be done for the ABS Project!

Gene flow analysis field in Nairobi, Kenya (Photo credit: ICRISAT)


ThecommendableaccomplishmentsoftheABSprojecthavecreatednew

technologiesandopenednewopportunitiesforfurtherresearch...

The significance of the ABS Project extends beyond the nutritional sphere. Most climate related research experts concede that the future cli-mate change effects in Africa will result in more severe drought and to some extent, more floods across all regions. Therefore, agricultural re-search targeting the African market often aims at improving the drought-tolerant 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 conti-nent. Furthermore, the nutritional improvements vastly improve the commercial viability of the crop thus stimulating further private and public sector research.

In this light, the ABS Project is racing against time as the predicted floods, droughts and natural calamities occur with increasing frequency and mag-nitude across Africa. The commend-able 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.

Dr Marc Albertsen, ABS Principal Investigator

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Technology Achievements.................Dr Marc Albertson

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The ABS Project has completed Phase I (July 2005–June 2010)1 and the spe-cific technological achievements dur-ing this span include the following:

1. Optimization and improvement of sorghum transformation systems, leading to a significant increase in the sorghum transformation ef-ficiencies 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 sor-ghum” transgenics were de-veloped as a result of Phase I support. This variety showed en-hanced levels of pro-vitamin A,

1. Grand Challenge in Global Health-The Grant Challenges: Goals available at www.grandchallenges.org/Pages/Browse-ByGoal.aspx. Accessed January 15, 2010.

Theworld’sfirst‘goldensorghum’transgenicsweredevelopedasaresultofPhaseIsupport.Thisvarietyshowedenhancedlevelsofpro-vitaminA,reducedphytateandanimprovedproteinprofile

“

ing, biosafety and regulatory issues in readiness for Phase II.

8. ABS traits have been backcrossed to popular African sorghum vari-eties and the traits have shown stability in various African varie-ties, including Marcia, Sima, Tege-meo, 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 hu-man capacity and infrastructure development has been achieved, strengthening scientific capacity of the target local institutions in Africa.

Building on ABS Phase I achieve-ments, ABS Phase II purposes to de-velop 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 infra-structural and human capacity, and the technological spinoffs can ben-efit many other research projects and lead to more products that benefit industrial agro-processors, livestock farmers and several other stakehold-ers. In essence, the ABS Phase II promises more benefits for Africa.

reduced phytate and an improved protein profile. Provitamin A amounts ranging up to 31.1 µg/g ß-carotene, 30 days after har-vesting, are within the range of those obtained from Golden Rice project.

3. Bioavailability studies have shown targeted increased rates of zinc and iron absorption.

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 op-erate status has been achieved for all the genes used in the ABS Project in all target countries and regions in Africa, confirming free-dom 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-


Basedonthefive-yearsuccess,weareconfidentofevengreatersuccessinthefuture

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 de-velop and deliver locally-adapted seed that produces more nutritious and eas-ily 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 varie-ties containing increased levels of es-sential amino acids, vitamin A, iron, and zinc for these key sub-regions of Africa, ECOWAS, SADC and Eastern/Central Africa. There is also the vi-sion of educating farm households

“

Dr Florence Wambugu, ABS Co-Principal Investigator

Thinking Ahead............................Dr Florence Wambugu

on the use of healthier food products derived from ABS grain, while devel-oping enterprise-driven food prod-ucts to provide income for small and medium African enterprises.

The refined vision paints the future of the ABS Project. It is built on scien-tific 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 20-30% (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 sci-ence is on track although a few re-finements 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 regu-latory and stewardship components have been established and African country-led approaches are in place;

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10 out of 13 institutions in the con-sortium are African based, backed by full support from National Agricul-tural Research Systems (NARS) and African governments.

The project has been instrumental in strengthening NARS biotechnol-ogy human infrastructure capacity. Contained field trials are planned for Kenya and Nigeria in 2010 or early 2011. Multiple biosafety con-tainment 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 opera-tionalise its glasshouse.

The project has ensured that Africa has 21st century scientific capac-ity. 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

PhaseIIinvolvesincorporationoftraitsintolocallyadaptedvarieties,developingseedproductionanddisseminationsystems,andincreasingtheproductivitythroughdevelopmentofhybrids

“biosafety regulatory capacity strat-egy has been developed to support NARS in policy framework develop-ment. Project partners have received support in communication capacity building and public acceptance, to ensure that principles and best prac-tices are implemented.

The strong commitment and support from Pioneer, the key technology do-nor ensures that the project’s future is bright. The fact that consortium members believe strongly in the ABS’s success, will ensure success in sourc-ing development partners for phase II.

The project’s immediate future dic-tates a step-wise approach to achieve its goals. This involves the develop-ment 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-

tions related to science and regula-tory or stewardship concerns.

Phase II also involves the incorpo-ration of traits into locally adapted varieties, developing seed produc-tion and dissemination systems, and increasing the productivity through development of hybrids. Farmer and household education programs for adoption of seed and grain, devel-oping food and beverage products derived from ABS products and ad-dressing gaps and bottlenecks to the sorghum value chain will help link the final product to the market.

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 de-velopment 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.

Dr. Maretha O’Kennedy (left) and Dr. Rachel Chikwamba examine some lab analysis results


The ABS External Advisory Board (EAB) was established in 2006 with the objective of providing independ-ent scientific advice to the project. Board members are international ex-perts with extensive experience in di-verse 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 impres-sive indeed! Nearly a dozen African researchers have been trained at Pio-neer, and have returned with criti-cal 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 tech-nological benefits, the project has already contributed to human and infrastructural capacity building and

Excellence in dealing with complexities..............................Prof Matin Qaim

HavingreviewedABS’seffortsforthelastfouryears,Icanfirmlystatethatthisisanoutstandingproject:thescientific

achievementswithintheprojecthavebeenveryimpressiveindeed!

“

upgrading of national innovation sys-tems in Africa. From the EAB view-point, 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 scientifical-ly and institutionally complex project within a very short period of time.

I would like to showcase the extraor-dinary skill with which the project has dealt with several complexities:

The ecological neutrality of gene flow: As some parts of Africa be-long to the centre of biodiversity for sorghum, there are wild relatives to which the transgenes of ABS varieties may outcross. The project consorti-um 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 bio-diversity. In consultation with BMGF, a panel of high-ranking international gene-flow experts was formed in 2009. The panel analyzed the is-sue 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 stud-ies are currently underway under the supervision of the Donald Danforth Plant Centre’s Biosafety Resource Network (BRN).

African regulatory confidence and issuance of permits for ABS tri-als: 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) per-mits in Africa. Yet, as experience from other countries shows, regulatory aspects are a learning process for all parties involved, including the regu-lators themselves. The ABS Project has made good progress in building regulatory confidence; permits have

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Prof Matin Qaim, Chairman of the ABS External Advisory Board

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. Burki-na Faso, Kenya, and South Africa al-ready have Biosafety Acts, while Ni-geria’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 legis-lation. Current regulatory and public perceptions bode well for further ABS technology development and deploy-ment.

Gene stacking is the way for-ward 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 consulta-tion with the EAB. It has also been discussed with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulatory au-thorities. 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 de-regulated in the USA and elsewhere, including a three-stacked product in South Africa. Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences are currently devel-oping a GM maize technology with eight stacked genes, which is likely

to be commercialized soon. There are numerous other examples, including public sector organizations. Hence, gene stacking is clearly the way for-ward for new generation biotechnol-ogy products.

Adoption of modern sorghum va-rieties 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 technol-ogy. This notion partly builds on a re-cent 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 sor-ghum varieties in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa is only around 1%. This number seems underestimated and is definitely misleading. An ABS review of scientifically published arti-cles shows that adoption rates of im-proved sorghum varieties vary widely across countries and regions. For in-stance, 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 ad-dition 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 rec-ognized 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 innova-tive institutional models – experience that the ABS Project can build on.

The project will generate nutrition-al benefits in a cost-effective way: Ex-ante impact studies were carried out by HarvestPlus for the ABS Project and BioCassava Plus (BC+), conclud-ing that both projects are cost-effective in terms of generating nutritional and health benefits in target populations. These results indicate that further in-vestment in these projects is worth-while from an economic and social per-spective since both crops are important food security crops in Africa, and grow under different agro-ecological condi-tions. The crops target different popu-lation segments and are complemen-tary 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 ex-cellent investment worthy of ongoing and future support!

Prof Matin Qaim

Out-going Chair of the ABS External Advisory Board

Ex-anteimpactstudiescarriedoutbyHarvestPlusfortheABSProjectandBioCassavaPlus(BC+)concludedthatbothprojectsarecost-effectiveintermsofgeneratingnutritionalandhealthbenefitsintargetpopulations

“


Intr

oduc

tion

• ThemalnutritionchallengeinAfrica

• ImportanceofmicronutrientandproteinsupplementationinAfrica

• Biofortification:Anewpublichealthapproach

• Isbiofortificationafeasiblemethodofenhancingnutritiondelivery?

• Whysorghum?

A woman stands in a sorghum field

Micronutrient deficiencies are now recognized as an important contributor to the global burden of disease.2 About one-third 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 defi-ciency, with and without anemia, may be the “most prevalent micronutrient deficiency in emergencies” as foods contain-ing 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.

“Inchildren,micronutrientdeficiencyleadstoreducedresistancetoinfectious

diseases,stuntedgrowthanddifficultyinconcentrating

The malnutrition challenge in Africa

Percentage of global deaths attributable to malnourishment and disease


Nofewerthan80,000NigerianchildrenarepronetodieannuallyfromVitaminAdeficiency

relatedailments

“Burkina FasoAccording to the 2003 Demographic and Health Survey, 42% of the ru-ral children and 20% of the urban children in Burkina Faso are under-nourished. Thirty-nine percent of them suffer from stunting (reduced height for age, an indicator of chronic malnutrition), and 19% from wast-ing (reduced weight for height, an indicator for temporary malnutri-tion).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 de-ficiency affects 92% of children un-der 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

KenyaA 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 pro-portion of children with low serum zinc was 50.8%.9

The most pressing form of malnutri-tion in Kenya is protein-energy mal-nutrition, which largely affects in-fants, preschool, and school children.8

NigeriaIn a study published in 2001, the na-tional prevalence of night blindness was 1.1%, the national prevalence of marginal VAD was 28.1% and se-vere retinol deficiency was 7.0%.10 No fewer than 80,000 Nigerian chil-dren 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 defi-ciency is also a public health problem

in Nigeria. In a study by Maziya-Dix-on 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 moth-ers were found to be zinc deficient.15

The prevalence of protein energy mal-nutrition among the children was 41.6% in rural areas.16

EgyptVAD among preschoolers and their mothers is considered to be a sub-clinical, mild-to-moderate, public health problem.17 The prevalence of anemia in women of childbear-ing age is 11% and among pregnant women is 26%. One in four children aged 6–59 months has iron-defi-ciency 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 malnutri-tion is the commonest form of nutri-tional deficiency in poor infants and children.20 In Egypt, the incidence of protein malnutrition was found to be 16.45%.21

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Introduction

Proteinmalnutritionisthecommonest

formofnutritionaldeficiencyfoundininfantsandchildreninpoorsectorsoftheEgyptianpopulation

“

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 Under-weight 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 ad-equate 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 pro-tected from brain damage due to iodine deficiency.25

Importance of micronutrient and protein supplementation/fortification in Africa

A scientist at work in the lab

Proportion of deaths due to undernutrition relative to deaths due to communicable diseases


Wheat flour, maize flour, oil and sugar fortification (with iron, folate, B vitamins and/or vitamin A) has al-ready started in countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Ni-geria, South Africa and Zambia. With the exception of South Africa, Nigeria and Zambia, where food fortification of selected foods is mandatory, forti-fication is done on a voluntary basis by pioneering companies.25

A 2007 study found a significant de-cline in birth defects as a result of the fortification programme, with reduc-tions 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. (Neu-ral 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 in-dicating that micronutrient fortifica-tion is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions.30

Current systems of providing the vitamin through supplements of-ten miss out on some target groups. Kenya, for example, achieved cover-age rates of above 80% for vitamin A twice a year in 1996 using mo-bile 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 chil-dren under five by 50%.27

The cases discussed above clearly show that supplementation and for-tification can drive a huge improve-ment in nutrition of African people, especially in compromised mothers and children. However, there is need to increase coverage and bioavail-ability of the nutrients for it to have greater impact.

End notes1. Birner et al. 2007. Biofortified foods and

crops in West Africa: Mali and Burkina Faso. AgBioForum, 10(3):192-200. www.agbioforum.org

2. Fuglie LJ. The Moringa Tree. A Local So-lution to Malnutrition? Dakar, Senegal. www.moringanews.org/documents/Nu-trition.pdf

3. Natalie D and Neumann CG. 2009. Mi-cronutrient deficiencies in food aid ben-eficiaries: A review of seven African coun-tries. African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development. June 2009. www.findarticles.com/p/articles/

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 sta-tus and Vitamin A deficiency among adolescent refugees in Kenya and Nepal. Public Health Nutrition. 2006.9:26-34 Cambridge Journals. Cambridge Univer-sity 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 Nutri-tion. 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; 107-110 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/ab-stract/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.

Lima, Peru. November 18, 2004. Abstract th 98, p 43. www.ars.usda.gov/research

14. Ugwuja et al. 2010. Plasma copper and zinc among pregnant women in Abaka-liki, Southeastern Nigeria. The Internet Journal of Nutrition and Wellness. 2010 Vol. 10 No. 1. www.ispub.com/journal/

15. Maziya-Dixon et al. 2004. Food consump-tion and nutrition survey. 2001-2003 Summary. International Institute of Tropi-cal Agriculture. Ibadan, Nigeria. www.iita.org/cms/details/NFC.pdf

16. Abidoye RO and Sikabofori. 2000. A study of prevalence of protein-energy malnutri-tion among 0-5 years in rural Benue state, Nigeria. Nutrition and Health. 2000. Vol. 13, No. 4 pp 235-247. www.cat.inist.fr/

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 defi-ciency in pregnant women. Iranian Jour-nal 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 cy-cle: 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 Reposi-tory. www.fao.org/docrep/008

23. Hampshire RD et al. 2003. Delivery of nu-trition services in health systems in sub-Saharan Africa: Opportunities in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Niger. Hellen Kel-ler International – Africa Nutrition in De-velopment 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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Biofortification: a new public health approach

Crop biofortification is the develop-ment of micronutrient-dense sta-ple crops using the best traditional breeding practices and modern bio-technology. 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 agricul-tural research make direct linkages with the human health and nutrition sectors. Application of novel advanc-es in biotechnology, genomics, genet-ics, and molecular biology is required to identify and understand plant bio-synthetic genes and pathways of nu-tritional importance, including those for nutrient absorption enhancers and inhibitors, as breeding for these may also be a viable option.3

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 un-derlying assumption for this strategy holds that there can be an increase in nutrient accumulation to plants

and, subsequently, to humans, with-out changing consumption patterns of traditional crop staples. The main methods for biofortification include: increasing the mineral and vitamin content in food plants via conven-tional selective breeding techniques; reducing levels of anti-nutrients in food staples that inhibit the absorp-tion and bioavailability of nutrients; and increasing levels of compounds that promote the bioavailability of nutrients.6

“Cropbiofortificationisthedevelopmentofmicronutrient-densestaplecropsusingthebest

traditionalbreedingpracticesandmodern

biotechnology

Burkinabe women work in a production line at a sorgum biscuit-making factory

Senator Daschle (USA) and his entourage tour the KARI greenhouse containing ABS events


By producing staple foods that are denser in bioavailable minerals and vitamins, scientists can provide farm-ers 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 com-plements existing strategies and has its own unique “niche” and techni-cal characteristics, most importantly the level of the “dose” that it can be expected to provide. Thus, nutrition-ally improved varieties would reach into relatively remote rural areas not presently well covered by commer-cial fortification and supplementation programs.4 Since staple foods pre-dominate in the diets of the poor, this strategy implicitly targets low-income households. Biofortification thus pro-vides a feasible means of reaching un-dernourished populations in relatively remote rural areas, delivering natural-ly fortified foods to people with lim-ited access to commercially marketed fortified foods that are more readily available in urban areas.3

The Copenhagen Consensus 2008 panel of economists selected biofor-tification, 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 dol-lar investment to improve the nutri-tion of hundreds of millions of poor people through biofortification is enormous. As food prices continue to rise, and people are forced to re-duce their food consumption, micro-nutrient malnutrition will increase. Biofortification then becomes all the more important as a strategy to im-prove nutrition and health.1

According to HarvestPlus, poor peo-ple 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

SixoutoftheeightobjectivesintheMillenniumDevelopmentGoalsarerelatedtomicronutrient

deficiency...

“

micronutrient deficiencies. Absence of biofortification combined with food price increase, will reduce mi-cronutrient intake even further.2

Biofortified crops do not need to pro-vide the entire RDA to be effective in substantially reducing micronutrient deficiencies. Consider a future sce-nario 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 popula-tions. More than 100 million cases of iron-deficiency could be averted each year.8

Six out of the eight objectives in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are related to micronutrient deficiency. Together with conven-tional interventions, such as sup-plementation and industrial fortifi-cation, biofortification of crops with essential micronutrients could great-ly contribute in achieving the MDGs.5

End notes1. World’s top economists say biofortifica-

tion is one of top five solutions to global challenges. HarvestPlus. 2 June 2008. www.harvestplus.org/content/

2. Bouis H. Rising food prices will result in severe declines in mineral and vitamin intakes of the poor. HarvestPlus 2008. www.harvestplus.org/s ites/default/files/2008HBouisfoodprices.pdf

3. Nestel et al. 2006. Biofortification of sta-ple food crops. Symposium: food fortifica-tion 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. Biofortifica-tion in China: policy and practice. Health Research Policy and Systems. www.health-policy-systems.com/contents/5/1/10

Dr. Peggy Lemaux (left) and Prof. Bob Buchanan (right) examine sorghum plants in a greenhouse (Photo Credit: University of California Berkeley)

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Is biofortification a feasible method of enhancing nutrition delivery?

A wide number of crop biofortifica-tion 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 biofortifi-cation success stories are discussed below.

Golden Rice is a genetically modi-fied rice with elevated levels of β-carotene—the precursor for vita-min A. The Golden Rice technology is based on a simple principle. All but two steps of the β-carotene bio-synthetic pathway are present in the grain. By addition of only two genes, the pathway is reconstituted, which leads to the production and accu-mulation 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 devel-opment of a prototype Golden Rice was obtained in 1999. It proved that β-carotene could be produced in rice

Thefirstbreakthroughinthedevelopmentofaprototype

GoldenRicewasobtainedin1999“grain. With the proof of concept in hand, the scientists immediately pro-ceeded 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, high-er β-carotene accumulation levels would be required.1

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.

The RDA of vitamin A for 1-3 year-old children is 300µg. Based on a reti-nol 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 tar-get countries, which lie at 100-200 g of rice per child per day.1

In June 2009, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Tufts Univer-sity found that, after consumption,

the stably labeled β-carotene from Golden Rice was absorbed intact into the intestinal tract. This result con-firmed the potential for a much more advantageous bioconversion rate than achieved from any other known crop-based source of carotene.2

The novel trait has been transferred into several Indica rice varieties, and "regulatory clean" events have been selected to facilitate the process-ing through the deregulatory proc-ess. Development of locally adapted Golden Rice varieties as well as ap-plication to national bio-regulatory authorities for field testing and de-regulation is in the hands of na-tional and international public rice research institutions. Golden Rice is still awaiting permission for the first small-scale field release, in which en-vironmental risks have to be studied experimentally. All a farmer needs to benefit from the technology is one seed!3

HarvestPlus’s research on cassava emphasizes developing genotypes with high concentrations of Provi-

Part of a sorghum head that has been prepared for lab analysis


tamin A carotenoids in the roots of agronomically superior varieties. A less extensive research program fo-cuses on breeding for high iron and zinc content. In germplasm screen-ing, 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 re-lease year for HarvestPlus’s bioforti-fied varieties is 2012; and the esti-mated biofortification contribution to mean daily vitamin A requirement is 50% if eaten daily.4

BioCassava Plus is an international initiative seeking to make cassava a more nutritionally rich and balanced staple plant crop. The project has demonstrated unprecedented suc-cess in enhancing cassava to contain more protein, vitamins and minerals, more robust plant virus resistance, delayed post-harvest deterioration and reduced cyanide content. Farmer-preferred varieties are being collected and analyzed.5

With support from the Gates Foun-dation's Global Challenges Program, the Danforth Plant Center’s cassava bio-fortification efforts have met or exceeded all targets, increasing beta-carotene 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 collab-orators, the improved varieties could be widely available in Africa within the next 10 years, improving surviv-

InUgandaandMozambique,scientistshavesucceededinbreedingseveralneworange-fleshedsweetpotatovarieties

biofortifiedwithvitaminA

“

al-rates and quality of life for millions of children and families that would otherwise suffer malnutrition.5

In Uganda and Mozambique, scien-tists have succeeded in breeding sev-eral 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 be-cause 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

Like most Africans, Ugandans eat white sweet potato. However, biofor-tified sweet potato – as foods rich in vitamin A tend to be – is orange. It is also sweeter and has a softer consist-ency. Farmers and consumers had to be convinced that eating a nutrition-ally improved sweet potato that has a different color, taste and consistency is better for them.6

Orange-fleshed sweet potato varie-ties that are naturally rich in ß-car-otene can be an excellent source of provitamin A and offer one more ex-ample 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 pri-mary school children improved vita-min A liver stores.3

To prove the hypothesis that high-iron rice can improve the iron count

in women of reproductive age, a double-blind intervention study was carried out in the Philippines. Under-milled iron-enhanced rice, which pro-vided 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 ferri-tin concentrations and body iron lev-els in non-anemic subjects compared with the locally used rice.3

The commercialization of the above-mentioned biofortified crops has been hampered by the precautionary principle – a system used by govern-ments 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

End notes1. 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 Oc-tober 2010-10-13.

3. Potrykus I. 2004. Experience from the hu-manitarian 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. Har-vestPlus. 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/

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Why sorghum?

Sorghum is an important food crop in Africa, Central America, and South Asia, and the "fifth most important cereal crop grown in the world”. Nu-merous 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 sorghumSorghum 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 pig-mented. The testa layer is thick near the crown area of the kernel and thin near the embryo portion. The larg-est component of the cereal kernel

...numeroussorghumspeciesareusedforfood(asgrainandinsorghumsyruporsorghum

molasses),fodder,theproductionofalcoholic

beverages,andasbiofuels

“ is the endosperm, which is a major storage tissue. It is composed of an aleurone layer and peripheral cor-neous 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 pre-cursor of vitamin A. The embryonic axis and the scutellum are the two major parts of the germ. The scutel-lum is a storage tissue rich in lipids, protein, enzymes and minerals. The oil in the sorghum germ is rich in pol-yunsaturated fatty acids and is simi-lar to corn oil. Grain texture is one

Sorghum plants in a field


of the most important determinants of the processing and food quality of sorghum.3

Environmental factors including ag-ronomic practices affect grain com-position. The mineral composition of sorghum grain is influenced more by location than by variety. Other fac-tors 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

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 mil-lets are in general rich sources of B-complex 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 val-ues reported, particularly for niacin. The highest niacin content reported is 9.16mg per 100g sorghum. Some yellow-endosperm varieties of sor-ghum contain miniscule amounts of β-carotene (0.97µg B-carotene/g grain sample), which can be convert-ed 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 sor-ghum grain. Sorghum in the form it is generally consumed is not a source of vitamin C.3

Consumption demographics in Africa 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 At-lantic coast to Ethiopia and Somalia, bordering the Sahara in the north and the equatorial forest in the south. This area extends through the drier

Cross-section showing the physical structure of a sorghum grain

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parts of eastern and southern Africa, where rainfall is too low for the suc-cessful 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 con-sumption accounts for almost three-quarters of total utilization, and it represents a large portion of the to-tal 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 pro-duction. 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 cere-als comes from sorghum, although it has declined from 55% in the early 1960s. Per capita consumption is 90-100kg/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 Gam-bia, Burkina Faso and Cape Verde, major southern portions of Mauri-tania, Mali and the Niger and the northern portions of Cóte d'lvoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria. Ce-reals occupy nearly 70% of the to-tal cultivated area in this region and engage 50 to 80% of the farm-level resources. Millets and sorghum ac-count for 80% of the cereal produc-tion.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 sub-region, accounting for 71% of the re-gional total output.7

Seventy percent of Kenya is now unable to produce maize as former growing areas are turning into semi-arid 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 Commu-nity (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 ce-real production, respectively. Most of the sorghum produced in the SADC region is consumed by producing households or sold in informal mar-kets, primarily for traditional beer production.3

Advantages of sorghum over other staplesIf sorghum is accorded research sup-port at a level comparable to that de-voted 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

greatest need. Indeed, if the twenti-eth century has been the century of wheat, rice, and maize, the twenty-first could become that of sorghum!4

Why is sorghum the crop for the future?

1. Sorghum is a physiological mar-vel. It can grow in both temperate and tropical zones. It is among the most photosynthetically ef-ficient plants. It has one of the highest dry matter accumulation rates. It is one of the quickest ma-turing food plants (certain types can mature in as little as 75 days and can provide three harvests a year). It also has the highest pro-duction of food energy per unit of human or mechanical energy ex-pended.4

2. Sorghum thrives on many marginal sites. It is one of the toughest of all cereals. It with-stands high rainfall – even some waterlogging. Recent research in Israel has shown that it also has some tolerance to salt – an in-creasingly useful feature for any crop these days. But most impor-tantly, 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 mas-sive and deep-penetrating roots are mainly responsible for this drought tolerance, but the plant has other drought-defying mech-anisms 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 process-es and retreat into near dorman-cy 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 wa-ter 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.

“Sorghumcould

contributemostto

regionsandpeoplesingreatestneed


Rarely will one find a kernelless season for sorghum, even under the most adverse water condi-tions! 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

3. Sorghum is perhaps the world's most versatile crop. Some types are boiled like rice; some cracked like oats for porridge; some "malt-ed" like barley for beer; some baked like wheat into flatbreads; and some popped like popcorn for snacks. A few types have sug-ary grains and are boiled in the green stage like sweet corn. The whole plant is often used as for-age, 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 vehi-cles 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

Howtofeedbillionsofmouthswithdiminishingtractsofprimecroplandwillbetheoverwhelmingglobalissue

“

some of the products that could be obtained.4

4. Sorghum can be grown in in-numerable ways. Most of it is produced under rain-fed condi-tions; some irrigated; a little is grown by transplanting seedlings as is done with rice. Like sugar-cane, it can also be ratooned (cut down and allowed to re-sprout from the roots) to grow crop af-ter crop without replanting. It is ideal for subsistence farmers on the one hand and can be com-pletely mechanized and produced on a vast commercial scale on the other.4

5. Finally, sorghum is relatively ‘un-developed’. It has a remarkable array of untapped variability in grain type, plant type, adaptabil-ity, and productive capacity. In-deed, sorghum probably has more undeveloped and underutilized

genetic potential than any other major food crop.4

With all these qualities and poten-tial, 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.

The population is projected to almost double in the coming years. How to feed billions of mouths with dimin-ishing tracts of prime cropland will be the overwhelming global issue. Ob-viously, vast tracts of less fertile and uncultivable lands must be coaxed to produce food. Moreover, if the much-feared 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, especial-ly to backstop the increasingly belea-guered food supplies of the tropics

Sorghum plants in a field at an ICRISAT field, Kenya

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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 CerealsSome varieties contain tannins Tannins not present in wheat, rice and

maize, present in low amounts in barleyAll varieties contain polyphenols Present in low amounts in wheat, rice,

maize and barleyProtein quality poor and lysine-deficient

Maize, barley and wheat are similar; rice protein quality is better

Protein digestibility reduced after wet cooking

Wheat, maize and barley protein digest-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 β-amylase

Maize is similar; rice, wheat and barley contain high levels of β-amylase

Withstands periods of drought Maize, wheat, rice and barley cannot withstand drought

Does not possess a true hull (husk)

Maize is similar; wheat, barley and rice 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 under-nourishment 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 con-

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 tempera-ture and low moisture. Most of the countries where it is a significant ar-able crop are arid and at risk of deser-tification. It is a crop primarily cul-tivated 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 conti-nent, with the area around the Sahara and in southern Africa experiencing drought, and the coastal and low-lands 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 ir-regularity within and between the

An official explains the biscuit-making process at a factory in Burkina Faso


milling and commercialization of new sorghum products, its status is changing from being a food security crop largely consumed in the rural ar-eas, to a commercial crop competing in the urban food market.17

End notes1. Sorghum. Wikipedia. www.en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Sorghum

2. Commercial sorghum. Wikipedia. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_sor-ghum

3. Sorghum and millets in human nutrition. FAO Document Repository. www.fao/do-crep/t0818e/

4. Lost Crops of Africa: Volume 1: Grains. National Research Council. 1996

5. Leder I. 2004. Sorghum and millets. Cul-tivated 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 Environmen-tally-Friendly Food and Industrial Grain in Nigeria. Department of Food Science and Technology. University of Uyo, Nigeria

8. Small farmers optimistic about increas-ing earnings from outgrowers’ contracts. Business Daily. 5 March 2010. www.busi-nessdailyafrica.com/-/539546/873220/-/view/printVersion/-/o7qjsfz/-/index.html

9. Sorghum responses, inorganic fertilizer and farmyard manure. www.kari.org/file-admin/publications/10thproceedings/

10. Food security in Africa. Inter Acad-emy Council. www.interacademycouncil.net/?id=8529

11. Taylor JRN. Overview: Importance of Sor-ghum in Africa. Department of Food Sci-ence. University of Pretoria. South Africa. www.afripro.org.uk/papers/Paper01Tay-lor.pdf

12. Dicko M. 2006. Sorghum Grain As Hu-man 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 Mag-azine. December 2008. www.ileia.leias.info/

14. Valley P. Climate change will be a catastro-phe for Africa. The Independent. 16 May 2006 www.independent .co.uk/environ-ment

15. Kebakile MM. Consumer attitudes to sor-ghum 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.

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 flexibil-ity in their cropping systems; they do not want very specialized cultivars, preferring sturdy all-weather varie-ties.3 Sorghum is the one tradition-ally accepted African crop that fulfils these requirements.

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 com-pared to those raised in urban areas. This was because sorghum was a common food reserve for rural dwell-ers and they retained their preference for it even after migrating to urban areas.15

In rural Bangladesh, sorghum con-sumption 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

Sorghum’sstatusischangingfrombeingafoodsecuritycrop

largelyconsumedintheruralareas,toacommercialcropcompetingintheurbanfood

market

“Prof. John Taylor, sorghum expert and ABS team leader at the University of Pretoria

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ABS

: An

Afr

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Har

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Pro

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• HowPioneer’sworkonsorghumformedthebasisfortheABSProject

• HowABSfitsintotheAfricaHarvestvision

Mrs. Melinda Gates (left) and Dr. Florence Wambugu share a moment at a BMGF meeting

How Pioneer’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 devel-oped the transgenic plants for which seeds were available. Further work to produce ABS2 would involve lever-aging corn technology for grain im-provement, amino acid composition, protein digestibility and vitamins and minerals. With the BMGF fund-ing, the ABS Project focused on us-ing ABS1 to facilitate development of plant breeding and regulatory proc-esses. This included preliminary eval-uation of key project drivers, such as biosafety and regulatory infrastruc-ture in the initial target countries. For example, the permit delays in South Africa provided crucial learn-ing, confirming the robustness of the strategy to use ABS1 to identify how best to realign the project within the realities of the target countries.

ABS2 was an improvement over ABS1; all the genes for this product were available within the consor-tium with the exception of the pro-vitamin A gene, which were made available by Syngenta through the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Pioneer, the scien-tific lead on the ABS Project, had do-nated 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 technol-ogy, developed by a team of Pioneer Genetics researchers led by Dr. Zuo-yu Zhao and Dr. Rudolf Jung, was to

PioneerhaddonatedtheinitialtechnologyvaluedatUS$4.8million,whichrepresentedtheintellectualpropertyrights,materialsandknow-howofthetransgenicbiofortifiedsorghumthatcontained50%morelysinethantraditionalsorghum

“Dr. Zuo-Yu Zhao speaks at an ABS planning meeting


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 elimi-nated 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

In response to BMGF’s request for proposals (RFP) , Africa Harvest sub-mitted Nutritionally Enhanced Sor-ghum for the Arid and Semi-Arid Tropi-cal Areas of Africa or the ABS Project.

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 sor-ghum that could grow in the semi-ar-id and arid environments of Africa. It sought to develop a more nutritious and an easily digestible sorghum vari-ety that would contain increased lev-els of essential amino acids, especial-ly lysine, increased levels of vitamin A, and more available iron and zinc.

The project came under Grand Chal-lenge number 9, whose goal was “to create a full range of optimal bio-available nutrients in a single staple plant species with the aim of improv-ing nutrition to promote health.” It addressed malnutrition as a major

global health problem, disproportion-ately 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-

TheABSProjectwasoneofthe43thatwereselectedfrommorethan1,000applications.Itsaimwasto

createahighlynutritiousbiofortifiedsorghumthatcouldgrowinthesemi-aridandaridenvironmentsofAfrica

“

ment, consists of six stages that in-clude Preparatory Work, Vector Con-struction, Sorghum Transformation & Event Development, Seed Shipment and Planting, Sorghum Breeding and Production of Grain by Farmers.

End notes1. Zhao et al. 2001. The Genome of the

Natural Genetic Engineer Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 Science 14 December 2001 294: 2317-2323 [DOI: 10.1126/sci-ence.1066804]

Dr. Zuo-Yu Zhao examines a sorghum leaf in a greenhouse at Pioneer facilities (Photo Credit: Pioneer)

Dr. Kimberly Glassman, research scientist at Pioneer (Photo Credit: Pioneer)

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How ABS fits into Africa Harvest’s vision

Since its inception, Africa Harvest has been a lead contributor to mak-ing Africa free of poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Even before the ABS Project, most of its interventions targeted poverty, hunger and malnu-trition alleviation. For example, the technology transfer of clean plant-ing material, otherwise known as the TC banana project, has impacted over half a million farmers in East-ern Africa, and NEPAD has identified the project for scaling out to other countries. Banana as a crop impacts hunger and malnutrition at house-hold level, while generating income to fight poverty.

Africa Harvest is also partnering with East African Malting Limited (EAML) to help small holder farmers in semi-arid 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, demon-strates that the national energy defi-cit can be partly addressed through

EvenbeforetheABSProject,mostofAfricaHarvest’sinterventionstargetedpoverty,hungerandmalnutritionalleviation

“The Mathenge family examines their sorghum field

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


TheProjectisfocusingonstrengtheninglocalcapacity,hasbroadNorth/South

public/privatepartnerships,allfocusingonanAfrican

product—ABS

“

well as non-communicable diseases, including nutrient-deficiency dis-eases like anemia, rubella and kwash-iorkor.

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 participa-tion, 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 focus-ing on an African product—ABS.

farmer-driven restoration river lines; especially for rivers that feed electric-ity-producing dams. The project is unique in that it uses outreach meth-odologies perfected through the TC Banana project impact on poor small-scale farmers located along major riv-ers in Kenya. Indirectly, firewood is necessary for cooking food to allevi-ate hunger and malnutrition.

Within Africa Harvest, the ABS Project is unique in that it addresses a critical third pillar of the organiza-tion’s vision: Since malnutrition is a leading cause of the rise in non-com-municable diseases (NCDs) in Africa, the project seeks to develop a more nutritious and easily digestible sor-ghum variety that will support bet-ter nutrition and subsequent impact malnutrition in future in Africa.

Further, this project adopts a long-term approach. It recognizes that many African nations require com-prehensive national nutritional pro-grams. The project integrates multi-ple disciplines to provide solutions and identifies biofortification as the strategy to impact communicable as

Dr. Florence Wambugu (left) and ICRISAT officials discuss a sorghum field experiment in Nairobi

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• Specificrolesofconsortiummembers

• TheABSconsortiumapproach

• BuildingatrulyAfricanproject:HowABSovercamelanguageandculturalchallenges

• Interdependencyandmutualbenefitofconsortiummembers

• Functionalgroupswithintheconsortiumstructure

ABS delegates at the 5th ABS meeting in Kenya

The

ABS

Con

sort

ium

Innovative Partnerships for Accelerated Technology Development

The Case of Africa Biofortified Sorghum


Africa Harvest as the grantee organization and Pioneer Hi-Bred, a business of DuPont, that is the lead science institu-tion form the core partners within the ABS project. As the appointed grantee institution, Africa Harvest is respon-sible 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.

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.

Within technology development, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Univer-sity of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) conduct the scientific discovery and technological innovations that make the ABS product feasible and enhance its performance.

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 Agri-cultural 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.

The enabling environment group is composed of institutions that provide certain capacities and resources that sup-port the other two groups and facilitate deployment to the end user. Africa Harvest provides leadership in the man-agement 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 sup-ported by the West and Central Africa Council for Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD) and NABDA in affiliation with other sub regional organizations.

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.

Astheappointedgranteeinstitution,AfricaHarvestisresponsibletoaccountforandreportonresources

providedbythedonor,BillandMelindaGatesFoundation.Likewise,PioneerHi-Bredisresponsibletoreportonthe

scientificandtechnicalprogressoftheproject

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Specific roles of Consortium members

Africa Harvest, as the primary grantee and therefore lead organiza-tion, provides overall project leader-ship, accountability and coordina-tion. Critical contributions occur in the areas of biosafety & regulatory procedures and communication, pub-lic acceptance and issues manage-ment.

Pioneer partners with Africa Harvest as the scientific and technology lead institution. The company helped cre-ate a collaborative environment of trust and open communication be-tween African and US scientists.

The Council for Scientific and In-dustrial Research (CSIR) – through its Biosciences Unit – is one of the leading scientific and technology re-search, development and implemen-

tation organizations in Africa. The plant biotechnology research group applies plant biotechnology tech-niques to improve human health. CSIR acts as the technology recipient for Africa and is the focal point.

The African Agricultural Technol-ogy Foundation (AATF) facilitates access to and transfer of proprietary agricultural technologies to small-holder 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.

Criticalcontributionsoccurintheareasofbiosafety&regulatory

proceduresandcommunication,

publicacceptanceandissuesmanagement

“ABS delegates at the first ever ABS planning meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa


The South African Agricultural Re-search Council’s Grain Crops In-stitute (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 exper-tise in conducting sorghum breeding programs for nearly three decades comes in very handy.

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 spe-cies in the targeted countries.

The University of Pretoria’s Depart-ment of Food Science has expertise in applying scientific principles to the development and supply of safe, nutri-tious and affordable food. It includes pilot studies, examining product de-velopment and product formulation.

West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Develop-ment (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 Devel-opment. CORAF/WECARD reaches out to small-scale producers to help address communication gaps for ef-

fective uptake when the product is ready. It also plays a vital role in dis-seminating information to support project implementation in the West African region.

The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) develops and dis-seminates technologies to increase productivity. It focuses on the post-harvest value of agricultural and livestock products, while conserving the environment. At KARI, African scientists develop tools to boost pro-ductivity of Africa’s farms – part of a broad strategy to strengthen the entire agricultural sector; to increase income; to support rural communi-ties; 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.

Scholars at University of California Berkeley have conducted ground-breaking research since the campus’s inception. The researchers have been exploring digestibility issues, based on similar studies they have con-ducted 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 ag-ricultural and environmental research

in Burkina Faso. It is the public re-search institute mandated by the government to build capacity, de-velop policy, transfer technology and manage agricultural research. Its re-search 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.

The Institute of Agricultural Re-search (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 agri-cultural improvement for Nigeria’s savannah region. IAR also provides research, training and agricultural ex-tension services.

The National Biotechnology De-velopment Agency (NABDA) was established in 2001 as a government agency to promote, coordinate and facilitate biotechnology R&D activi-ties in Nigeria. Given its mandate to create awareness on biotechnology and its potential benefits, NABDA’s role within the ABS Project is to man-age a Nigeria Country Communica-tion Team (NCCT), which consists of representatives from IAR and other strategic institutions.

ConsortiummembersincludePioneer,CSIR,AATF,ARC-GCI,ICRISAT,UniversityofPretoria’sDepartmentofFoodScience,CORAF/WECARD,KARI,Universityof

California,Berkeley,INERA,IAR,andNABDA

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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 agricultur-al technology that the country uses remains very basic and rudimentary.

While it is human nature to resist change, culture, politics and eco-nomics play a far greater role in Afri-ca’s technology uptake. Often, those who would benefit most from new technologies resist them because

The ABS Consortium Approach

Often,thosewhowouldbenefitmostfromnewtechnologiesresistthembecausetheydonotfully

understandthem.

“ 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 dis-courage their adoption.

Africa’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 agri-cultural research institutes (NARIs) have the mandate to drive agricultural R&D, but they devote limited invest-ment to research due to inadequate funding from government and donors.

Dr. Clarisse Kondombo-Barro with ABS officials at INERA, Burkina Faso


South-South partnerships in agri-cultural technology are almost non-existent. Those that do exist bring together weak partners who, even when they pool their resources, fail to accomplish much.

It is against this backdrop, and for the above reasons, that the ABS con-sortium was formed. The project rec-ognized the need for strong partner-ships. In designing the consortium and entering North-South partner-ships, the problems of discrimina-tion were investigated where Afri-cans could be considered a “junior” partner. Their lack of capital, skilled manpower, infrastructure and latest technologies, often led African part-ners to allow their stronger Western partners to drive the R&D agenda at the expense of the real needs of the African recipients.

The ABS Project knew that if chal-lenges 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 unpro-ductive without diversity of thought.

The following issues were considered:

• Human and infrastructural capac-ities have a symbiotic relation-ship. Africa has many qualified scientists working in developed countries because their own countries lack the necessary in-frastructure for them to make full use of their skills. There was therefore a need for infrastructure development to complement ca-pacity building in order to retain

TheABSProjectknewthatifchallengesfacingpreviouspartnershipswereanythingtogoby,especiallywithaconsortiuminvolvedwithnewertechnologies,littleprogresswouldbe

madeinactualR&D

“African human capacity in GM technology.

• Poor financial and institutional frameworks also hampered agri-cultural R&D. There were no co-herent national systems focusing on the handling of GM technol-ogy. The consortium sought to link the African institutions and then provide space for African scientists to network with their American counterparts.

• African GM technology suffers from lack of incentives for re-search. There was lack of a con-centrated system to unlock value out of the various research pro-grams being carried out in aca-demic institutions and private research companies. The project sought to identify linkages be-tween the ABS research and other R&D work within the partner or-ganizations.

The uniqueness of the ABS consor-tium is that it identified the gaps in GM research in Africa and applied in-novative solutions to address those gaps. This was accomplished through building the network of required skills and infrastructural resources.

As the primary grantee organization, Africa Harvest’s challenge was to un-lock maximum value from the con-sortium by focusing efforts on the project objective, encouraging cross-fertilization of ideas, creating synergy between the institutions and keeping the teams incentivized.

The problematic issues which arose in project management were mostly non-scientific in nature. These in-cluded difficult situations that arose when a highly qualified western sci-entist was partnered with an African one. As a result, inter-institutional groups were formed to address com-mon issues. For example, the com-

Dr. Mohamed Hovny from Egypt (left) and Professor Babatunde Obilana (right) attend an ABS planning meeting in Burkina Faso

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munication directors from Africa Har-vest, CSIR and Pioneer teamed up to deal with the communication needs of the consortium. In the financial management of the consortium, Af-rica Harvest developed a standard financial reporting system for all members. This facilitated conducting of financial due diligence. To stand-ardize the accounting system, capac-ity had to be built across the consor-tium. Ideas put forward by various members were incorporated. The CSIR, for example, has an excellent tracking system for funds received, which the consortium adopted.

Obviously, a culture of interdepend-ency and mutual benefit contributed hugely to the success of the ABS Project. Shared expertise resulted in successful technology transfer and capacity building.

TheuniquenessoftheABSconsortiumisthatitidentifiedthegapsinGMresearchinAfricaandappliedinnovativesolutions

toaddressthosegaps

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Delegates at the 5th ABS planning meeting in Kenya


As for technology transfer, Africa Harvest identified qualified and suit-ably experienced post-doctoral can-didates and sent them to Pioneer laboratories to learn the latest tech-niques. Simultaneously, the consor-tium upgraded the laboratories from which they had recruited the candi-dates in preparation for their return to work on the ABS milestones.

Luke Mehlo, a post-doctoral research-er at the CSIR, was attached to the Pioneer biotechnology laboratory in Iowa for a year. His training focused on high-throughput genetic transfor-mation, which later became critical knowledge for the project. At the same time, the biotechnology labora-tory 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 technol-ogy from Pioneer to CSIR, and at the same time, built human and infra-structural capacity.

Africa Harvest recognized the need for an African post-doctoral re-searcher 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 man-agement. The ABS consortium has proven that, in today’s globalized economy, fruitful collaboration fos-ters creativity and breeds success.

The project has demonstrated pro-fessional and efficient management of a 13-member worldwide consor-tium. The consortium’s success can be attributed to consistent yet in-novative 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 part-nership. Thus, the project has laid a formidable foundation for future partnerships.

AfricaHarvestrecognizedtheneedforanAfricanpost-doctoralresearchertoleadthe

transformationwork

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The project’s stress on communi-cation has helped it create an ena-bling environment for project im-plementation. Knowledge sharing, and transparency and dialogue with different stakeholders ensuring mes-sage consistency have been the hall-marks. 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.

Theproject’sstressoncommunicationhashelpedit

createanenablingenvironmentforproject

implementation

“

“The BMGF grant represents a ma-jor paradigm shift in agricultural re-search in Africa. It is refreshing to note that the project was put to-gether by African scientists for the African continent,” says Africa Har-vest CEO, Dr Wambugu. “In the past, we have been told that there is no scientific or infrastructural capac-ity in Africa. This has always meant that Africa-targeted research was often done outside Africa, or with minimal African scientists’ involve-ment. In our project design, we pro-ceeded 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 organiza-tions 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 scien-tific brains and technologies to fight malnutrition, which is a major African health problem,” Dr Wambugu said.

Professor Babatunde Obilana (left) and Dr. Matin Qaim (right) attend an ABS planning meeting

Part of the delegation attending the 9th ABS planning meeting in South Africa


...ItisrefreshingtonotethattheprojectwasputtogetherbyAfricanscientistsfortheAfricancontinent,”saysAfricaHarvestCEO,

DrWambugu

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Africa – the second largest continent in the world – is a very diverse conti-nent. This diversity is evident in the physical geography and climate, plu-rality of languages, cultures and tra-ditions, and diverse social and politi-cal 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 ac-ceptance would require project do-mestication and collaboration with existing institutions and research networks. Even more critical was to pay attention to cultural differences within the consortium for effective collaboration.

Communication was especially dif-ficult when ABS sought to establish

Building a truly African project: How ABS overcame language and cultural challenges

Successinthetargetcountriesandgainingacceptancewouldrequireprojectdomesticationandcollaborationwithexistinginstitutionsandresearch

networks

“Delegates from Burkina Faso at the ABS 2010 meeting


the project in Burkina Faso. While most of the consortium members are from English-speaking countries, Burkina Faso is a francophone coun-try, and the language barrier had to be tackled. The language and cross-cultural challenges were overcome through training, reciprocal visits, innovative communication methods, interpreters, and commitments from both sides to learn one another’s lan-guage.

The adoption and training of English and French-speaking Burkinabe to support local activities was essen-tial. To ensure local participation, the communication team produced an English and French ABS video documentary to disseminate knowl-edge of ABS. The documentary intro-duced and showcased the project to opinion leaders and decision makers in the English and French-speaking countries. The target audiences also included government officials, bi-osafety regulators, donor institution leaders, academicians, sorghum in-dustry leaders, agricultural commu-nity leaders and media personnel. In addition, the communication team produced folders, inserts, and pres-entation slides. This was an effort to standardize the ABS messages.

Thelanguageandcross-culturalchallenges

wereovercomethroughtraining,reciprocalvisits,innovativecommunicationmethods,interpreters,andcommitmentsfrombothsidestolearnoneanother’s

language

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Interdependency and mutual benefit of Consortium members

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 build-ing. The technology and research organizations (CSIR, ICRISAT, AATF) brought their experience to bear on enhancing and cus-tomizing technology and intellectual property for use in Africa; and the University of Pretoria (UP) and University of Cali-fornia, 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.

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 re-search. It acted as the African recipient of technology. IP was also donated by Japan Tobacco. UP and UCB carried out paral-lel 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 (Agrobacte-rium) and CSIR’s (biolistic) transformation activities. It was ad-visable 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 capac-ity in genetic engineering in Africa. This is a sustainable ven-ture since the techniques learnt from both institutions can be used for future projects.

Itwasadvisabletousecomplementarytechnologysincetheshort-term(fiveyears)natureoftheprojectinvolvedmanyconstructs

“

Dr. Jeremy Ouedraogo

Dr. Peggy Lemaux, research scientist at University of California Berkeley (Photo Credit: University of California Berkeley)


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Functional groups within the consortium structure

Project Steering Committee (PSC)The PSC is the apex decision-making organ of the project and was instru-mental in proposal development and interactions with the BMGF. It ini-tially comprised lead scientists from three organizations of the consor-tium – 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.

The PSC will continue in its role of making strategic decisions such as, setting the technical research agen-da, guiding product development and stewardship, approving budget disbursements, approving project im-plementation milestones, scientific publications, and protection of IP generated through the project.

TheProjectSteeringCommitteewillcontinueinitsroleofmaking

strategicdecisions

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ABS Project Steering Committee: Back row from left: Lloyd le Page, Prof. Babatunde Obilana; Front row from left: Florence Wambugu, Marc Albertsen, Rachel Chikwamba

The first ABS Project Steering Committee from left: Blessed Okole, Florence Wambugu and Paul Anderson

External Advisory BoardThe 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 GroupThe 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 avail-ability for charitable objectives. The group’s leadership and management came from AATF.

Team Leaders’ Management GroupThe team leaders’ management group (TMLG) comprised team leaders from the consortium member insti-tutions. Its role was to develop an annual project implementation work-plan, review project implementation strategy, share information, support team building and interaction, ensure timely production of reports, and en-sure achievement of milestones.


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

Jacob Mignouna of AATF

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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• Five-yearProgressHighlights• Projectmanagementandcoordination• Technologyandresearch• Breedingandproductdevelopment• Regulatoryandbiosafety• Publicacceptanceandcommunication• Intellectualpropertymanagement• Capacitybuildinginitiatives

Five-year Progress Highlights

• AfricaHarvest leadsformationoftheconsortium,completionofthemilestone-basedproject implementationplan,anddevelopmentoftheIPpolicymanual.

• Pioneerteambuilt6vectorsforAgrobacterium-mediatedtransformation,andcompletionofgenetransferfromPioneertotheCSIR,andfromtheGC9CassavaProject.

• Thegraincompositionanalysiswasinitiated.• UC-Berkeleycommenceditsstudiesonproteindigestibility,andUPcompletedaliteraturereviewofvalue-addedsorghumprocessingmethods.

• ICRISATinitiatedthegermplasmcollectiondatabaseforAfrica.• AfricaHarvestimplementsmessagestandardizationandtheABSwebsitewascreated.• AfricaHarvestcompletesaninventoryofthetechnologiesoftheproject,andabiotechnologyacceptancelitera-turereviewwasadopted.

• CSIRgreenhouseswereupgradedforGMOactivities,andLukeMehloandAndileGrootboom(CSIR)startedtheirresearchinPioneerlaboratories.

• ThefirstandsecondplanningmeetingswereheldinPretoriaandNairobirespectively.• ThePSCheld7meetings,apressconference,andoversawthenominationsfortheEAB.

YEAR 1

Red sorghum grains


• CSIRsuccessfullysuppressedtargetedkafirinproteins.• UCBenhancedAgrobacteriumtransformationtoachieve0.5%efficiency.(CHECK)• UCBandUPcarriedoutparallelstudiesonthedigestibilityofsorghum,anddevelopedreliabledigestibilityassays.• Reportonestimatesoffitnessofhybridsandrateofhybridformationbetweencultivatedandwild/weedysorghumwasmade.

• ABS2entryroadmapforKenyaandBurkinaFasowasdeveloped.• ThePACteam ledbyAfricaHarvestdeveloped theABS folderand insert,andproducedabi-lingualABSvideodocumentary.

• TheprojecthadoutreachestoEuropeandCanada.• TheAATFfacilitated2provisionalpatentapplicationsfiledintheUSAbyCSIR.• KennethMburujoinedPioneerduringthisyearfortraining.• AfricaHarvestorganizesthefifthandthesixthplanningmeetingsinNairobiandPretoriarespectively.• CORAF/WECARDandKARIwereincludedintheconsortiumascollaboratinginstitutions.

• CSIRcarriedoutmolecularanalysisofABS1plants,aswellasbaselinegrainandnutritionalanalysisof10sorghumvarieties.

• Molecular,biochemicalanalysesofsorghumlineswasunderwayatUC-Berkeley.• Biolistic-mediatedtransformationbeganatCSIR.• TheARCgreenhousewasupgradedforGMO.• UPcarriedoutsurvey inKenyato identify indigenoussorghumproductsand formulation fornutrientbaselineanalysis.

• UPcarriedoutsecondsurveyonfoodconsumptionintheLimpopoprovinceofSouthAfrica.• ICRISATselectedfourleadvarietiesofsorghumforbreeding;andprovidedCSIRwith20varietiesforscreening.• Diversityofsorghumspeciesdocumentwascompleted,andthegermplasmcollectionwasfinalized.• Theinventoryoftechnologicalinputswascompleted,andtheregulatorydatabaseforABStargetcountrieswascompiled.

• AfricaHarvestcompilesthefirstphaseofsorghumbiologydocument,andtheKenyapublicacceptanceregulatorybaselinesurveywasconcluded.

• Geneflowexperimentsweredesigned;10molecularmarkerswereidentified;andthegeneauditreportwassubmit-tedtothePSC.

• AfricaHarvestcoordinatesBMGF’svisittoSouthAfricaandKenyaforbiosafetysupport.• Theprojectmanagementwasorganizedandsuccessfullyheldthethirdandfourthplanningmeetings.• TheprojectmanagementteamattendedtheGC#9meetingstoinitiatecreationofaProductDevelopmentResourceCenter.

YEAR 2

YEAR 3

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• TheABSProjectproducedtheworld’sfirstgoldensorghumwithincreasedlevelsofvitaminA.• Theconstructionofeightnewvectorsresultedinthegenerationofover1,000transgenicevents,maintaining8%orhighertransformationrates.

• TransgenicplantsofthefirstABSconstructexpressinghighlevelsoflysinewereplantedinCSIRgreenhouses.• PioneerconductedconfinedfieldtrialsinIowaandHawaiirespectively.• Themocktrialofanon-transgenicsorghumcultivarwascarriedoutatARC’sCFTfacility.• InKenya,threeeventsofABS1weregrown,comparedwith,andcrossedwithlocalcultivars.• Sixteen local sorghumcultivarswere planted at theKARIKiboko research station for screeningon agronomicperformance.

• TheUPteamdeterminedthattheProteinDigestibilityCorrectedAminoAcidScore(PDCAAS),theofficialWHO/FAOmeasureof foodproteinquality, ismore thandoubled in sorghumporridgemade fromABScompared toregularsorghum.

• ThedocumentationofthediversityofthewildrelativesofsorghuminABStargetcountrieswasconcluded.• TheninthplanningmeetingwassuccessfullyheldinPretoria.• DanforthCentreandHarvestPlusjoinedtheprojectforbiosafetysupport.• AfricaHarvestcoordinatedthebiosafety-program-organizedcapacitybuildingforBurkinaFasoregulators

• CompletionofconstructionoftransformationvectorsforAgrobacterium-andBiolistic-mediatedtransformationatPioneerandCSIRrespectively.

• AchievementofasignificantbreakthroughinsorghumtransformationefficiencyatPioneer.• Thecomprehensivemolecularanalysisyieldedpreliminarydataindicatinglowlevelsofbeta-caroteneinABS.• TheARC/AHteamcompletedthecollectionofgeneflowtrialdata.• Twenty local sorghum varieties atARCPotchefstroom fieldswere characterized for priority agronomic and al-lergenicittraits.

• KARIprojectstaffwastrainedonglasshouseprotocolfollowingtheextensionofthebiosafetygreenhousechamber.• KARIconductedfieldscreeningtoselectsuperiorandpopularsorghumcultivarsforintrogression.• Productionofsorghum-basedproductswithABS1andcontrolgrainswasconductedbyUP.• ProteinqualitystudiesshowedthattheABStraitsofimprovedproteinqualityanddigestibilityareexpressedinfoodproducts.

• AATFformulatedadraftGlobalPatentProsecutionStrategy,andthemolecularmarkerlabatARCwasrenovated.• Roadmapoftheentireproductdevelopmentfromvectorconstructiontoseeddistributionwascompleted.• CSIRresearcher,NompumeleloMkhonza,receivedtrainingattheUniversityofNebraska.• KARIsubmittedtheapplicationforglasshouseevaluationtoInstitutionalBiosafetyCommittee(IBC)andNationalBiosafetyCommittee(NBC).

• AfricaHarvestorganizestheseventhandtheeighthplanningmeetingsinMombasaandOuagadougourespectively.• ProjectmanagementattendedtheannualGC9meetinginThailand,andthePSCheld7meetings.

YEAR 4

YEAR 5


Project management and coordination

The ABS Project has a total of 11consortium members, with partnerorganizationsbasedinsevenAfricancountries and theUSA. The Projectmanagement and coordination team–basedinAfricaHarvest–overseescontractualissues,financialmanage-ment, project meetings, milestoneplanningandprojectmonitoringandevaluation.

Operational Aspects: The ProjectManager handles day-to-day opera-tions. Dr. JamesOnsando (who hasleft the project towards the end ofPhaseI)wasresponsibleformanage-ment, monitoring and evaluation,facilitation of meetings, writing ofreports, archiving documentation

TheProjectmanagementandcoordinationteamoverseescontractual

issues,financialmanagement,

projectmeetings,milestoneplanning

andprojectmonitoringandevaluation.

“forauditsandposterity,andgeneralenhancement of inter-consortiumsynergies. Dr. Silas Obukosia, theRegulatory Director, has taken overtheProjectManagementresponsibili-ties.

Financial management: AfricaHarvest manages the finance. TheDirectorofFinanceandBusinessDe-velopmentatAfricaHarvest,MichaelNjuguna,ensuresthatallconsortiummemberscomplywiththetermsandconditionsofthegrant.Hemonitorsexpenditure, sees that expenditureis aligned to the budget; and isresponsible for financial reportingand management of the financialauditprocess.Heisalsoresponsible

Former ABS Project Manager, Dr. James Onsando, during a planning meeting


Page55

Attheformativestageoftheproject,themanagementandcoordinationteamdevelopedtheprojectpolicymanual,whichclearlystipulatesthedo’sanddon’tsonallaspectsoftheprojectfromtransformationto

productdeploymentandstewardship.

“An elderly couple inspects their sorghum field


for facilitatingsub-grantcontractualagreementsandtimelydisbursementof project funds to the partner or-ganization.

Project Inter-Institutional Agree-ments: Africa Harvest manages alltheagreementsrelatedtotheprojectwith the consortium members andcontractual partners, thereby ensur-ingthatinstitutionalplayerscomplywiththestipulatedtermsandcondi-tions of the grant. All institutionshavetoadheretotheGlobalAccessStrategyandCharitableObjectives.

The External Advisory Board (EAB): Independent world-classexperts fromtherelevantdisciplinesconstitute the EAB. The expertiserepresented includes agro-bio-technology, biodiversity, nutrition,biosafety,plantbreeding,agriculturaleconomicsandpublicacceptanceandcommunication.TheEABmeetsonceeachyearafterattendingtheendofthe year project planning workshoptoreviewprogress,enablingittogiveadvice accordingly. The feedback isgivenverballyattheworkshopsand

formallyinwritingaftercomprehen-sivereviewandevaluationofannualachievements.

Intellectual Property Management Group (IPMG): IPMG audits andmanages all IP rights in theproject,thereby creating the space for theproject to operate and meet theGlobalAccessStrategyforcharitableobjectives. PSC selects the Com-mitteemembers, andAATF handlesmanagement. The committee meetstwiceayearandreports inventions,identificationandauditofbackgroundtechnologiestoguaranteefreedomtooperate,secureandallocateIP.

Team Leaders Management Group:The institutional team leaders areresponsiblefortheprojectimplemen-tationanddeliveryonbehalfoftheirinstitutions.Theyareresponsibleforpresentationsonworkprogressdur-ing the project planning workshop.TheyarealsoaccountabletothePSCforprogramdelivery.Thegroupholdstwomeetingsayearalongwithneed-driventeleconferences.

Outreach Activities: The manage-ment and coordination team em-barkedonaseriesofoutreachvisitsto countries of project deploymentsuchasNigeria,Egypt,SouthAfrica,BurkinaFasoandKenya.

Ineachof thecountries, theymadecontacts with government officials,national agricultural research sta-tions,nationalbiosafetycommittees,andbiotechnologyinstitutes.

Planning Workshops: Planningwork-shopsareheldtoreviewprojectprogress.The functional teams plan, strategize,identifyrisksandcomeupwithmitiga-tion actions. Themeetings foster teambuilding in order to understand theproject dynamics, project monitoringdynamics,evaluationandfeedback,net-working,andplanning.

The Project Policy Manual

Attheformativestageoftheproject,the management and coordinationteam developed the project policymanual,whichclearlystipulatesthedo’sanddon’tsonallaspectsofthe

ABS management on a tour of the plant biotechnology lab at INERA


Page57

projectfromtransformationtoprod-uct deployment and stewardship.It was necessary to harmonize thepoliciesofeachinstitutionalmemberof the consortium into a compositepolicy document in order to ensurethat all concerned operated fromone page and accepted the modus operandi.

• The technology policy docu-ments the emergency prepared-ness and biosafety containmentfor greenhouses; and regulatesfield and greenhouseoperations,reproductive containment, seedstorageandmovement,andphy-tosanitarycertification.

• Theregulatory/biosafety policycommits, as far as possible, notto use antibiotic resistance as aselectionmarkeranddeployment

ofGeneticUserRestrictionTech-nology (GURT); and conductscomprehensive biosafety andfood safety assessmentof all itstransgenic sorghum productsbefore release to farmers andconsumers.

• The IP policy commits to abid-ingbyall international lawsandtreaties aswell as national lawsinthecountriesofoperation.Thecharitable objective is themajorprincipleonwhichallthepoliciesarefounded.

• The management and coordi-nation policies define the op-erationof governance,while thefinance policyclearlystipulatesthe rules governing expenditureofprojectmoney.

Africa Harvest oversees the signingofsub-grantcontractualagreementswith consortium members and dis-bursesprojectfundsaccordingtoanagreedschedule.Duringthefiveyearsof phase I of the project, they heldplanningmeetingsinPretoria,SouthAfrica; Nairobi, Kenya; Johnston,Iowa in USA; and Ouagadougou,BurkinaFASO.Keyprojectstaff,EABand,onafewoccasions,donorrepre-sentatives attended thesemeetings.The meetings reviewed milestoneachievement,andplannedfor futureactivities, includingvisits topartnerorganizationsandfieldsites.

During Year 1, the first and secondplanning meetings were held inPretoria and Nairobi respectively.Followingthecompletionofthemile-stone-based project implementationplan, the IP policy manual was de-

Themeetingsreviewedmilestoneachievement,andplannedforfutureactivities,includingvisitstopartner

organizationsandfieldsites.

“Delegates at the 9th ABS planning meeting in Pretoria, South Africa


Theninthplanningmeetingwassuccessfullyheldin

Pretoria.DanforthCentreandHarvestPlusjoinedtheproject

forbiosafetysupport.

“

veloped. Three-month and 6-monthprogress reports were circulated, inadditiontothefirstsemi-annualnar-rative progress report submitted totheBMGF.ThePSCheld7meetings,apressconference,andoversawthenominations for the EAB. Monthlyresearchmeetingswereinitiated.

In Year 2, the BMGF visited SouthAfrica and Kenya for biosafety sup-port.Themanagementheldthethirdandfourthplanningmeetings.Duringthisyear,the5-yearmilestonenego-tiations were completed. The first,second, and third quarter and theyear-endprogressreportswerepub-lished. The management attendedtheGC9meetingstoinitiatecreationof a Product Development ResourceCentre. The gene audit report wassubmitted to the PSC. The regula-torymanager underwent training inBelgium,resultinginthehiringofanABSregulatoryconsultant.

Thefifthandsixthplanningmeetingswere held in Nairobi and Pretoriarespectively. CORAF/WECARD andKARI were included in the consor-

tium as collaborating institutions.The quarterly and half-yearly an-nualreportswerecompleted,andthemilestonemid-termreportpublished.ThemanagementmadesitevisitstoKenyaandSouthAfrica.TheEABmetforthesecondtimethisyear.

The seventh and eighth planningmeetings were held in Mombasaand Ouagadougou respectively. Theregulatorymanagermade a few site

visits.ThemanagementattendedtheannualGC9meetinginThailand,andthePSCheldsevenmeetings.

Theninthplanningmeetingwassuc-cessfully held in Pretoria. DanforthCentre and Harvest Plus joined theproject for biosafety support. Thebiosafety program organized capac-itybuildingworkshopsforregulatorsfromBurkinaFaso.

A representation of level of involvement of different teams during the stages of the ABS project


Page59

The project’s goal with regard totechnology was to develop a nu-tritionally enhanced sorghum thatwould contain increased levels ofessentialnutrients,especiallylysine,vitaminA,ironandzinc.Theproductdevelopment team would use thissorghum for introgression of thenutritional traits into high-yielding,African and farmer-preferred varie-ties.

The TDG has seen close collabora-tionsbetweenPioneer(theprincipaltechnology donor), CSIR (Africantechnology recipient) and the Uni-versity of Pretoria (which leads thenutrition and digestibility research).Their work involves developing andevaluating the set of technologiesrequired to bring forth the ABSproductaswellascreatingthesetofgenesthatwillbetransferredintotheproductduringproductdevelopment.Scientistsfromthethreeinstitutionshave been working on a product

Technology and research

TheTDGhasseenclose

collaborationsbetweenPioneer,CSIRandtheUniversityofPretoria

“

whichwillhavethefullcomplementofnutritionalanddigestibilitytraits.

The prerequisite work was donein transformable sorghum linesP898012 and later in TX430 andthe results crossed (introgressed)with farmer-preferred local-adaptedsorghumvarieties.

ABS1 seed was increased both atJohnstonandPuertoRicotosupportanalysis work. Thereafter, crushedseeds were shipped to ARC andUniversity of California, Berkley fordigestibilityandnutritionanalysis.

The initial crossing work was initi-atedinPuertoRico,USA,usingsomeoftheselectedABS2germplasm.Thefirst field planting of ABS2 showedthat kafirin reduction had beenachieved. Digestibilitywas expectedto improve as a result. Analysis ofABS2 seeds showed that proteinqualityhadimprovedaslysinelevelsincreasedby90-120%.Phytatewas

reduced by 40-50% and the ABS2transgenic seed germinated betterthan the wild type seed, whichshouldresultinbetterironandzincavailability. With respect to seedweight, results showed that mosttransgenic eventswereheavier thanthewildtype.

Scientificmethodswereusedtoderivethe values of the nutritional targets.The parameters considered includedDisability-Adjusted Life Years (DA-LYs),preparationmethodsofsorghumfoods,consumptionpatterns,andtherateofdegradationofnutrients.

The original targets were 50%phytatereduction,50%ironbioavail-ability, 35% zinc bioavailability, 20micrograms of β-carotene, and traitstability. These were subsequentlyrevised based on data that gavemore accurate indications of whatwasachievable,keeping inmindthelimitationsofbiology.

-Summary of Lead Genetic Elements -TraitProteindigestibility

Genes evaluatedGamma&deltakafirinTRX&NTR

Genes forwardedGammakafirin

Proteinquality AlphakafirinA&BBHL9,LKR

Alphakafirin

IronandZinc MIK MIK,MRPPro-vitaminA PSY1(rice&zm),Crtl PSY1(zm),CrtlSelectionmaker Bar,PMI PMI

A representation of level of involvement of different teams during the stages of the ABS project

Regeneration

Yellowish

Maize Hi-II expressing rice Psy

Orange

Sorghum callus regeneration with stable orange sector expressing pro-vitamin A gene (Photo Credit: Luke Mehlo, CSIR)

A summary of the lead genetic events of ABS (Photo Credit: Zhao, Pioneer)


“WhentheABSProjectbegan,targetsweresettoachieveimprovedproteinqualityandproteindigestibility.

TheUniversityofCalifornia-BerkeleyandtheUniversityofPretoriacarriedoutparallel studieson the chemicalcomposition and food quality ofsorghum using internationally es-tablished research methods. Theydeveloped a reliable, small-scale di-gestibilityassaythatyieldedresults.

Theresearchbenchmarkedthenutri-entcompositionofsorghumgraininordertoquantifytheimprovementsinnutrientcompositionbeingobtainedthroughrecombinantGMtechnologyduringthedevelopmentofABS2.

Robustanalyticalmethodswereusedforresearch.Forinstance,toestablisha nutritional baseline from differentsorghums,thedatafrom11varietieswascomparedtoliteraturevalues.

The report reviewed the literatureon the effects of themajor process-ing technologies used to producesorghum foods on the nutrientcomposition of sorghum. It becameclear that the effects of processingwere complex and depended on themethods,nutrients,andwhetherthesorghumcontainedtanninornot.Themajor food processing technologieswereemployedontheABSsorghumsand relatednon-biofortified types toquantify and compare the effects ofprocessingontheenhancednutrients.

For the full complement product, the project set the following targets:

Trait Target StatusIronandZincBioavailability*

80%phytatereduction20%ironbioavailability20%zincbioavailability

85%phytatereduction20%increaseinironbioavail-ability30%increaseinzincbioavail-ability

VitaminA* 10µgbioavailablepergramofbeta-caroteneinsorghumgrainsstableforatleast6months

Yellowsorghumendorsperm31µgpergram30daysafterharvest

TraitStability Stablein6linesincluding4AfricanlinesStableatleastin4generationsStableashomozygousandhemizygous

Grainsof11sorghumvarieties,repre-sentativeofmosttypesofsorghum,especially typescultivated inAfrica,wereanalyzedintermsofkernelchar-acteristicsandnutrientcomposition.Thedataconfirmed that theproteincontentofsorghumgrainislowandhighly variable. The data also con-firmedthatlysinecontentisverylowwhencomparedtoothercereals,thatthere is essentially no pro-vitaminA in white endosperm types, andthat the iron and zinc contents aresimilartoothercereals.Thedataalsoconfirmed thatwet cooking reducesin-vitro protein digestibility andthat protein digestibility of tanninsorghumsisconsiderablylowerthanthatoftannin-freesorghums.

ABS2 lines were subjected to mo-lecular and amino acid analysis toexamineifdigestibilityimprovedandalso to determine their integrationpatternsoftraitstoselecteventstocarry forward. The resultswere stillverypreliminaryandfurthermolecu-laranalysisneededtobeperformed.

Various tests were used to screenthelinesforthepresenceofvitaminA and good preliminary data wasobtained from these analyses. Thecarotenoid content in sorghumwasbenchmarked and the capacity toevaluate the trends in accumulation

of carotenoids over the course ofgrain development was established.Additionally,growthchambercondi-tions were optimized for sorghumflowering. Progress was made oncrossingselecteventstoremovehightannin background. As of February2009,32vitaminAeventshadbeengenerated.

The University of Pretoria teaminvestigated protein digestibilitymeasurementusingDumascombus-tionassayandfoundthat itworkedwell.Italsofoundthatsuppressionofdifferentkafirinproteinsinthegrainendosperm results in changes in:grain endosperm texture (becomesfloury), protein bodyultra structure(canbecomeinvaginated)andcookedproteindigestibility(increases).

Comprehensive molecular analysisof kafirin suppression events at theCSIR produced very useful data forproofofconceptandregulatoryover-sight of final products. Preliminarydata indicated low levels of betacarotenefromeventsgeneratedusingbiolisticsandricepsy1gene.

All analytical data was reported asthemean and standard deviation ofat least two closely agreeing inde-pendentreplicates.


Page61

Thetransgenicsorghumhaselevatedlevels of pro-vitamin A (up to 311µg/g beta-carotene), and reducedphytate(85%).

Bioavailability studies have shownincreasedzincabsorptionof30%andincreasedironabsorptionof20–30%when phytate levels are reduced by≥80%. Sorghum transformationwentfromlow(<0.1%)toimpressive(>10% transformation efficiency)and is no longer the limiting factorin sorghum improvement via genetechnologies.

WhentheABSProjectbegan,targetsweresettoachieveimprovedproteinquality and protein digestibility. Alltargets for protein quality improve-ment were achieved. The productexhibited an improved amino acidprofile [tryptophan (10–20%),lysine (30–120%), and threonine(30–40%)].With respect to proteindigestibility, the technology teamachievedthesetgoalofnodecreaseinproteindigestibilityasa resultofcooking.

The World’s First Golden Sorghum...

Conventional sorghum (left) and golden sorghum (right)

Results for protein digestibility analysis of different sorghums (Photo Credit: Prof. John Taylor, University of Pretoria)

Golden Sorghum

...and a new, faster way to transform the crop


Whileworkingontheproject,DrLukeMehloofCSIR,andhisresearchpart-ner,DrZuo-YuZhaoofPioneer,foundtwo new methods that provided adeeperunderstandingofthecellcycleaswell asmodifications around theuseofAgrobacterium.Oneimprovesgenetransferefficiencybyactivatinggenetic sequences inAgrobacterium that are responsible for transferringtheT-DNA.Thisimprovestheuptakeofthegenesbeingtransferred,allow-ing the uptake of mostly one copyof the transferred gene, which ispreferentialtomultiplecopies.

The other technique involves amethodtoconvertnormalcells intoaformofprogenitorcellline–whichis undifferentiated and developmen-tally flexible – and easily become anumberofdifferenttypesofcellsasdirected by the hormones. TheABSConsortiumhasessentially inventeda way of recruiting somatic cellsandabundantcallus,andconvertingthem into cells that can grow andgiverisetomultipleorgansofaplantandregeneratetheentireplantitself.

Together, these novel technologiesimpact various stages of the trans-formation process, by targeting theplant cells to receive the DNA andto grow well in tissue culture, andby providing flexibility, enabling thetransformed cells to organize intotissues,organsandwholeplants.

“The combined inventions areaimed at enhancing transformationefficiencysothatoneachievestrans-formationevents faster,reliably,andefficiently.Weenvisagethistechnol-ogytobeusefulforgeneticengineersandplantbreederswhowillproducetheseedforpoorfarmersonachari-table basis – the sector targeted bytheABSProject”,saysMehlo.

The patenting of the technologiesgenerated under the Grand Chal-lengesProgram is inalignmentwiththe related Global Access Strategy,approvedbytheBMGF,whichmakesthe technologies available to thepoor and allays fears that patentingwilldeprivethepoorofaccess.

“TheABSConsortiumhasessentiallyinventedawayofrecruitingsomaticcellsandabundantcallus,andconverting

themintocellsthatcangrowandgiverisetomultipleorgansofaplantandregeneratetheentireplantitself.

In vitro protein digestibility (%) of food products made from the different sorghums

Code Raw flour

Porridge (Ugali)

Alkali Cooked Porridge

(To)

Fer-mentedflour

Fermented flour por-

ridge (Ting)

Flatbread(Roti)

Fermented flour

flatbread (Inera)

Cookies Couscous

C1 72.5aD 42.9aB 56.4aC 81.2aE 56.2aC 47.8aB 56.3bC 36.3aA 33.2aAT1 88.4dG 62.0dC 73.4dEF 90.7dG 74.1bF 65.0bcCD 69.2deDE 54.3bB 45.5bcAC2 73.2abE 45.2adB 58.7aD 82.1aF 59.2aD 51.5aC 52.2aC 34.3aA 31.2aAT2 88.0dF 61.3cdC 73.0cdE 91.4dF 73.1bE 63.9bcCD 68.2cdeD 53.0bB 45.9bcAHighDigestible

83.4cE 55.4cB 68.9bcD 88.1cF 71.7bD 61.0bC 64.8cC 63.5cC 45.4bcA

LowDigestible

75.0bF 49.7bB 67.8bDE 85.5bG 70.7bE 62.0bC 66.2cdD 59.2bcC 41.9bA

Macia 86.4dF 64.9dC 76.7dE 90.4dF 80.2cE 69.3cD 72.3eD 51.8bB 49.6cAValues 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


Page63

Breeding and product development

As a part of product development,thenutritionaltraitshadtobeincor-poratedintothefarmer-preferredandadaptableAfricansorghumvarieties.Thestrategywastoachievesomeofthepositiveagronomictraitsinthesebackground varieties. This enabledtheexpressionoftraitstodeliverthenutrients at levels that are biologi-callybeneficialtotheconsumer.

The goal is to package theprimary productsinopen-pollinatedvarietiesand hybrids in a form that farmerscanaccessandgrow.Thesecondary products will entail processing toproducebreakfastcereals,flour,breadandcakes.

The prerequisite work was done innon-transgenic sorghum for adapt-able sorghum varieties; and hybridparentallineswereeventuallyusedinintrogressionoftheABS2transgenicsorghumtraits.

Thegoalistopackagetheprimaryproductsinopen-pollinatedvarietiesand

hybridsinaformthatfarmerscanaccessandgrow.

“An array of food products made from sorghum


ABS1 seed growthwas increased insummer fieldsatbothJohnstonandPuertoRicotosupportanalysiswork.Thereafter, the crushed seeds wereused for digestibility and nutritionanalysis.

The initial crossing work started inPuertoRico,USA,usingsomeoftheselected ABS2 germplasm. The firstfieldplantingofABS2showedreducedkafirin, as a result of which digest-ibility improved. Analytic results oftheseedsshowedthatproteinqualityimproved as lysine levels increasedby 90-120%. Phytate was reducedby40-50%and theABS2 transgenicseedgerminatedbetterthanthewildtypeseed.Thetransgeniceventswereheavierthanthewildtype.

ICRISAT carried out germplasm col-lection and characterization. Some390 cultivated and wild sorghumswerecollectedinWesternKenyaand150 inEasternKenya. ICRISATthendelegated the germplasm collectionjob to South Africa’s ARC, whichmappedtheavailablesorghumcollec-tionsinSouthAfricaandalsoplantedsorghumvarietyforseedincreasetobeusedbytheCSIRteam.

Afterthefarmersobservedthe16cultivars,theirbestchoicesforproductionwereKARIMtama1andGadam

“

Thecorecollection,consistingof426entries originating from the fiveABStarget countries, was acquired fromtheICRISATgenebankandsownformorphological characterization atKARI Kiboko fields in Kenya. Aftermorphological characterization, thegrainsamplesweresenttotheICRI-SAT-Indialaboratoryformicronutrientanalysis,specificallyironandzinc.

Some16localsorghumcultivarswereplantedatKARIKibokoresearchsta-tioninKenyaforscreeningonagro-nomicperformanceandphenologicaltraitsand20localsorghumvarietiesweregrowninSouthAfrica.Allthesewerecharacterized forpriorityagro-nomicandphenologicaltraits.Basedon the performance data, the best-ranked cultivars from Kenya were:KARIMtama1,Sultan,IS8193,KMB097andKMB022.

Some30farmersfromMuanginiAgri-cultureandFoodSecurityGroup,fromKitui South, Kenya, visited the ABSscreening experiment before harvestand were briefed on the purpose ofthe trial.After the farmersobservedthe16cultivars,theirbestchoicesforproduction were: KARIMtama1 (16farmers)andGadam(13farmers).

ThePioneerscientists’workongeneintroduction into a sorghum varietywas successful, allowing gene test-ing and product development in anon-tanninlinethatprovidesclearernutritional value and delivery. TheysuccessfullybackcrossedtherelevanttraitsoffourmajorAfricanvarieties,Macia, Malisor 84-7, Tegemeo andSima. Backcrossing breeds a hybridwith its parent or a similar plant inorder to produce desired traits ina plant with characteristics of theoriginalspecies.

Sorghum ABS lines possessing im-provementinproteinquality,proteindigestibility and mineral availabil-ity stacked in a single genetic locusshowed trait stability and normalgenetics for three generations, in 6genotype backgrounds, including4 African germplasm and in bothhemizygousandhomozygousstates.

Three lead events of ABS2 and thebackground check received fromPioneer were established in thegreenhouse,togetherwith2popularlocal cultivars, for introgression byKARI scientists. The seeds fromcrosses between the ABS lines andlocalcultivarswereharvestedafter4

T1 T2

C1 C2

Macia High digestibility Low digestibility

Couscous made from different types of sorghum during processed product analyses (Photo Credit: Prof. John Taylor, University of Pretoria)

Cookies made from different types of sorghum during processed product analyses (Photo Credit: Prof. John Taylor, University of Pretoria)

Low dogestible line High dogestible line

T1

T2

Macia

C1

C2


Page65

monthsandanalyzedfortheinsertedtraits. These hybrid seeds will alsobe planted in the greenhouse forbackcrossinggenerationstomonitortraitstability.

A literature review of sorghumproductsandprocessingmethodsin-dicatedthattheuseofABSsorghumintheseproductscouldsignificantlyimprove their nutritional value. Ad-ditionally,indigenoussorghumprod-ucts and their processing methodswere surveyed. This work preparesthecriticalpathwaythatdetermineshowABSsorghumcanbenefitfarm-ersandconsumers.

To deliver the varieties, the Univer-sityofPretoriaconductedgrassrootsstudies on how sorghum is con-sumed, andon development of sor-ghum menus using non-transgenicsorghuminanticipationofthevarie-tieswiththenutritionaltraits.

AnumberofdifferentfooditemswerepreparedonasmallscaleusingearlygenerationABSproducedbyPioneerintheUSA.Thisline,calledABS32,had the traits of improved proteinquality and reduced phytate. TodeterminetheavailabilityoftheABSimprovednutrient traits in the foodproducts, levels of in-vitro proteindigestibilityand reactive (chemicallyavailable)lysinewereanalyzed.

ItwasfoundthatABSsorghumcon-tainingthe improvedproteinqualityand reducedphytate traits couldbeused successfully to make a widerangeoftraditionalAfricanandmod-ernfoodproducts,includingporridge(Uji), lactic acid fermented porridge(Ting), alkaline porridge (Tô), flat-bread(Roti),fermentedflatbread(In-jera),couscousandcookies.Further,the ABS traits of improved proteinquality in terms of available lysineandproteindigestibilitywereclearlyexpressedinthefoodproducts.

TheUPteamfoundthattheProteinDigestibility Corrected Amino AcidScore (PDCAAS), the officialWHO/FAOmeasureoffoodproteinquality,is more than doubled in sorghumporridge made from ABS sorghumcomparedtoregularsorghum.Infact,the PDCAAS of sorghum porridgemadefromABSsorghumissomuchimprovedthatitisnowatthesamelevelaswheat,maizeandpearlmil-let.Further,thePDCAASofporridge

ItwasfoundthatABSsorghumcontainingthe

improvedproteinqualityandreducedphytatetraitscouldbeusedsuccessfullytomakeawiderangeoftraditionalAfricanandmodernfood

products

“Geo-referenced map of sorghum collections in Burkina Faso

Clarisse Kondombo-Barro in sorghum germplasm storage area


TheProteinDigestibility

CorrectedAminoAcidScoreofsorghumporridgemadefromABS

sorghumissomuchimprovedthatitisnowatthesamelevelaswheat,maizeandpearlmillet

“

Criteria AccessionNumber

Countryoforigin

Fe(ppm)

Zn(ppm)

DT50%flowering

Plantheight(cm)

PanicleExsertion

Glumecolor

Graincovering(1-9)

Agronomicscore

Grainweight(gm)

100grainwt(gm)

HighFe IS18896 Nigeria 108.5 44.5 62.9 300.2 2 4 4 4.5 36.85 1.5HighFe IS2788 Kenya 94.8 20.9 81.9 360.0 1 2 1 47.11 2.4HighFe IS24503 South

Africa76.0 13.4 46.4 210.0 3 2 9 5.0 5.69 0.8

LowFe IS24786 Nigeria 22.6 13.3 90.4 356.5 3 6 1 53.75 2.7LowFe 1S7455 Nigeria 20.5 11.0 73.4 311.5 1 4 5 4.8 55.61 3.0

HighZn IS18896 Nigeria 108.5 44.5 62.9 300.2 2 4 4 4.5 36.85 1.5HighZn IS2853 South

Africa63.5 29.0 69.5 291.9 2 2 2 4.0 45.79 2.8

HighZn 1S7305 Nigeria 59.0 27.9 59.0 265.8 3 6 1 4.0 64.40 3.4HighZn IS12695 South

Africa51.8 27.9 54.0 191.6 1 2 7 5.0 17.70 .

LowZn IS21340 Kenya 26.8 7.7 67.3 277.4 3 5 8 5.0 6.74 0.7LowZn IS8935 Kenya 32.4 8.3 73.6 312.2 2 6 7 4.8 45.05 5.6

An INERA official explains the distribution of sorghum collections in Burkina Faso

A scientist examines KARI greenhouse ABS events

Analysis of chemical properties of various sorghum accessions


Page67

madefromABSsorghumissubstan-tiallyhigherthanporridgemadefromconventionally high lysine and highproteindigestibilitysorghums.

To determine the level of bio-fortification required to meaning-fully improve the nutrient contentofsorghum,asurveywasdone inasorghum-consuming area in SouthAfrica.Thestudyrevealedthat,withtheexceptionofprotein,allthetargetnutrientsofABSweredeficientinthechildren’s diet. These results helpeddeterminethenutrienttargetsfortheproject.

Nokuthula Vilakati surveyed foodconsumption in the rural LimpopoProvince of South Africa, to deter-mine the amount of biofortificationrequired to meaningfully improvethe nutrient content of sorghum.Data from the 1999 National FoodConsumption Survey of South Afri-

Consumer sensory evaluation of sorghum-soya cookies at Zakhele Primary School, Pretoria (Photo Credit: Prof. John Taylor, University of Pretoria)

Kenyan school children are fed sorghum porridge


canchildrenwereusedtodeterminethenutrient intake.ThevalueswerecomparedagainsttheRDAsandRec-ommended Nutrient Intakes (RNI)to determine which nutrients weredeficient and by how much. Thesevalues were then used to calculatethe levels required to biofortify sor-ghumsothatthechildrencouldmeettheirRDA/RNI.

The study revealed that, with thepossible exception of protein, thechildren’s diets were deficient in allthe nutrients stressed by the ABSProject. The study also indicatedthat bioavailability of the nutrientspresent in the sorghumwas an im-portant issue. Thus, if the sorghumwasbiofortifiedwithaspecificmicro-nutrient,itwouldensurethat,whenit is consumed in thediet, itwoulddeliver the required amounts of themicronutrienttomeetthechildren’sRDAs/RNIs.Although the children’sdiets were not notably deficient inprotein, protein biofortification ofsorghum could help relieve protein-energymalnutrition.

Theaimof this studywas todeter-minethefoodconsumptionpatternsofruralwesternKenyanchildrenaged2–5 yearswith specific reference tosorghum consumption. The Gopanisorghumvarietywasthemostpopu-laroutofthe8varieties.Theresultsshowedthatsorghumcontributedtoonly2%oftheRDAofthetotaldiet.

If sorghumwas the sole cereal in achild’sdiet,tomeether/hisrequiredzincintakeindietsoflowtomediumzincbioavailability,ABSwouldhaveto biofortify zinc by at least 100%.Again, on the assumption that insuch diets sorghum was the solecereal, ABS would have to biofor-tify ironby about33%.This surveyrevealed that ABS sorghum wouldmakeaverybigdifferenceinpeople’snutrientandhealthstatusinregionswheresorghumisthemajorstaple.

TheaimofthisstudywastodeterminethefoodconsumptionpatternsofruralwesternKenyanchildrenaged2–5yearswithspecificreferencetosorghum

consumption

“Dr. Mary Mgonja, ABS team leader at ICRISAT, Kenya


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Regulatory and Biosafety

Agricultural biotechnology allowsplantbreederstomakeprecisegeneticchangestoimpartbeneficialtraitstotheplantshumanbeingsrelyon.Bio-technologyisarapidlychangingfield,withmanydifferentapplicationsandfrequent new developments. Eachapplication of biotechnology bringsbothbenefitsandrisks,whichshouldbeassessedonacase-by-casebasis.Thetopicsofconcernwithregardtogenetic modification are as follows:risks for animal and human health,risksfortheenvironment,horizontalgene transfer, risks for agriculture,risk of loss of sorghum biodiversityandothergeneralconcerns.

Biosafety relates to efforts aimed atreducingtheriskofaliengenesinGMplants.TheFAO/WHOhaveprovideddecision trees for rigorous assess-mentandtestingofGMfoods.Gov-ernment regulations affect biotech-nology research choices, laboratoryconstruction and practices, testingprocedures,manufacturingpractices,and marketing of new products.AcrossAfrica,mostcountriesareatdifferentstagesofimplementationofbiosafetyandregulatoryframeworks.

TheAfricanUnion Biosafety Projectfocuses on capacity building for anAfrica-wide biosafety system. Theprojectaimstointegratethetopicofbiosafetyintothepoliticalandinsti-tutional frameworks of the AfricanUnion and into its support servicesforthememberstates.

Theprojectputtogetherafull-fledgedRegulatory and Biosafety initiativeto ensure that the regulatedprojectactivities conform to the nationaland international regulations, pro-tocols or laws governing GM cropsand their products. This initiative isresponsiblefordevelopmentofsafetyguidelines and core-related activi-ties that include: gene flowstudies,toxicity tests, allergenicity tests,non-target studies (ecotoxicology),bio-availability analysis, digestibilityassaysandcompositionalanalysisforpromising transgenic events gener-atedbytheTDG.

Governmentregulationsaffectbiotechnologyresearchchoices,laboratoryconstructionandpractices,testingprocedures,manufacturingpractices,andmarketingofnewproducts

“Dr. Silas Obukosia, ABS Biosafety and Regulatory Manager, inspects a head of sorghum


The Regulatory and Biosafety teamalso provides leadership for permitapplication dossiers for elite eventsthatneedtobeimportedorusedincontained greenhouse or confinedfield experiments. The team isresponsible for gathering regulatorydata, training project personnel andprovidingoversighttotheotherABSprograms; in particular, the Regula-toryandBiosafetyworkscloselywiththecommunicationteam.

The ABS Project is committed tocomplyingwithbiosafetyregulationsand legislation of theAfrican coun-trieswhereitoperates.Theprojectiscommittedtoworkingwithnationaland regional biosafety institutionsandstructures,toalignwithagricul-turalandbiotechnologypolicies.

ICRISAT conducted non-transgenicbaseline environmental and socio-

TheABSProjectiscommittedtocomplyingwithbiosafetyregulationsandlegislationoftheAfricancountrieswhereitoperates.

“ecologicalresearchinKenyapriortotheintroductionoftheABSproductsfor regulatory approval. The surveyled to an understanding of farmers’perceptions,knowledgeandinforma-tionpathwaysonsorghumvarieties,seed systems and agronomic prac-tices(includingweedcontrol).

FollowingarequestbytheABSEAB,apanelofexpertswasconstitutedtoprovide its views on sorghum withrespecttogeneflow.Thegenesusedby theABSProject are for improve-ment of nutritional traits. In theeventofgeneflow,thelikelyscenariowouldbeforthewildsorghumpopu-lations to have increased vitaminsandmineral levelswithout affectingthe competitive advantages of thepopulations.

INERA conducted a gene flow trialpollen competition of red-seeded

Groundbreaking for KARI greenhouse extension


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CSIRreceivedapermitfromtheSouthAfrican government for the con-struction of a greenhouse, inwhichthey plantedABS1. The greenhouseexperiment with ABS2 at CSIR wascompletedandthereportsubmittedtothePSC.

The Kenyan government approveda permit for greenhouse testing ofABS2 following the approval of animportpermitformovementofABS2seedsfromPioneertoKenya.

The project assisted with theexpansion of the fourth biosafetygreenhouse chamber at KARI. AnABS2 trial permit application waspresented to KARI IBC and ap-proved for NBC consideration. Staffmembers from KARI, Kenya PlantHealthInspectorateService(KEPHIS),National Environment ManagementAuthority (NEMA) and INERAweretrained in biosafety contained andconfinedtrialmanagement.

InSouthAfrica,ARCgotitscontain-ment facilities certified following its

TheestimatesrevealedthatgeneflowfromABSsorghumwouldpersistinthewildpopulationsatlowfrequencyandthatimpactwouldbelargely

neutral

“sorghum variety in Saria, BurkinaFaso.Estimatesof fitnessofhybridsandrateofhybridformationbetweencultivated and wild/weedy sorghumweremade,andareportpreparedbyICRISAT.Theestimatesrevealedthatgene flow fromABSsorghumwouldpersistinthewildpopulationsatlowfrequencyandthatimpactwouldbelargelyneutral.

PioneerappliedforandgotapprovalforpermitstogrowABS1andABS2intheUSA.Theopenfieldtrialswereconducted first in 2007 (Johnston,Iowa)andthenin2008(PuertoRico).

The regulatory team developed thestandard trans-boundary movementapplication in compliance with theCartagenaProtocol.

South African import permits forABS1andABS2wereobtained.CSIR’sapplication to conduct ABS1 trialsin SouthAfricawas successful afterit supplied additional informationconfirming it would meet biosafetyrequirementsforthelaboratorytrials.

Gene flow experiment at ICRISAT, Kenya


Aregulatorytrainingmanualwasdevelopedanddossiersontheregulatoryandbiosafetyrequirementsinthecountriesofproduct

deploymentwerecompiled.ThetrainingmanualwasusedtotraintheABSpersonnelonbiosafety

andregulatoryissues

“

workwasajointmilestoneledbyKARIwithsupportfromAfricaHarvest.

The sorghum germplasm collectionwas completed following ICRISAT’sdocumentationofthediversityofthesorghumspeciesinthetargetareas.

A regulatory training manual wasdevelopedanddossiersontheregu-latoryandbiosafetyrequirements inthecountriesofproductdeploymentwere compiled. The trainingmanualwasusedtotraintheABSpersonnelonbiosafetyandregulatoryissuesoftheproject.

upgradation from level 2-P to 3-P.Permitsforgoldensorghumasfollowup to the ABS1 were successfullysubmitted in early 2009 as vector-basedapplications,withARCtakingthe lead. The field permit to growABS2 in SouthAfricawas then ob-tained. The field-testing experimentwith golden ABS2 was completedandthereportsubmitted.

The ICRISAT molecular-analyticallaboratory for gene flow studieswasequipped in the firstyearof theproject. Expansionof the greenhousecontainment facility atKARI forABS

The fifth year saw themock trial ofa non-transgenic sorghum cultivarbeing carried out at South Africa’sARC CFT facility, while preliminarypreparationforCFTofABSinBurkinaFasowasunderway.

At the commencement of theproject,theRegulatoryManagerwasDr. JamesOkeno,whowas replacedinthethirdyearbyDr.SilasObuko-sia, formerly of USAID, Kenya. Hejoined as the Director of BiosafetyandRegulatoryAffairs.

ABS transgenic sorghum grows in KARI biosafety level 2 greenhouse


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also gone into project informationdisseminationinkeytargetcountries.InKenya,acountrysurveyonbiotechacceptance was undertaken at thebeginning of the project. However,inothertargetcountries,keepingthecomplex nature of research duringPhaseI inmind,theprojectfocusedoncriticalgroupsofstakeholders.

Outreach to the stakeholders takesplacethroughvariousforums:forex-ample,theprojecthostedexhibitionsat the Agricultural Science Week

during the Forum for AgriculturalResearchinAfrica’s(FARA)biannualgeneral assembly. The C&IM teamprovidestrainingandbriefingpointsformembers going to these confer-encesorbeinginterviewed.Aprojectvideowasusedtostandardizeinfor-mation shared about the project inthedifferenttargetcountries.

Foranewconceptorstrategytobewidelyaccepted,thecontentneedstobecommunicatedinalanguagethattheaudienceconnectswith.Thisin-

Communication and Issues Management Strategy

TheABSCommunicationand IssuesManagement (C&IM) team, headedby Africa Harvest’s CommunicationDirector, Daniel Kamanga, managescommunicationsbasedonastrategypaper developed at the start of theproject.TheC&IMWhitePaperhigh-lights the strategic thrusts for theproject within a short and mediumtimeframe, incorporating changingprojectneedsalongtheway.Overall,thestrategyfocusesonachievingthefollowingthreekeyobjectives:

• Create an enabling environmenttoachievethegoals;

• Improve understanding and in-creaseacceptanceoftheproject,especially within the key targetcountries;

• Provide continuous C&IM sup-porttotheprojectteams.

The C&IM teamworks closely withthePSC.Itcomprisesateamleader,MrKamanga(AfricaHarvest),repre-sentativesfromPioneer(MsMicheleWaber,whohassincebeenreplacedby Ms Kristie Bell) and the CSIRrepresentative (Ms Alida Britz).Communication practitioners frompartner institutions also participateinthedeliberations.

Duringtheperiodunderreview,ama-jorpartoftheC&IMeffortswentintocreatinganenablingenvironmenttoachieve project goals. Efforts have

An article on the ABS project on the Forbes website

Daniel Kamanga, Director, Communication for Development Program, Africa Harvest

Foranewconceptorstrategytobewidelyaccepted,thecontentneedstobecommunicatedinalanguagethat

theaudienceconnectswith.

“


volvesproductionofcommunicationmaterialsthatweighstheaudience’slevel of understanding, incorporatestheirneedsandmatchesthemtotheprojectgoals.TheC&IMteamhelpsproducepublicationsofwide-rangingcomplexity to communicate withshareholders.Amongthemisafour-volume literature review of publicacceptanceofbiotechnologyinAfricaand standard operating proceduresforlaboratoriesfortheinternalaudi-ence, amid-term report andprojectbrochures.

Due to the changing biotechnol-ogy and biosafety policy environ-mentacrossthetargetcountries,theC&IM team, in collaboration withtheBiosafetyandRegulatoryAffairsteam, also focuses on outreach andcapacitybuilding.One-on-onemeet-ings between consortium membersand key government, parliamentaryandpoliticalofficialsaswellascon-sultative meetings with biosafetyregulatorsareheld.

Throughconsultationwithotherteams,the C&IM team analyzes issueswithpotential for negative consequences,

TheC&IMteamhelpsproducepublicationsofwide-ranging

complexitytocommunicatewithshareholders

“An article on the ABS project on the IPS News Agency website

A journalist interviews Africa Harvest CEO, Dr. Florence Wambugu


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andproposes and implements strate-gies tomitigateworst-casescenarios.Appropriatedocumentsaredevelopedtohelptheprojectrespondquicklytoissues to avoid any situation turningintoacrisis.

The team also provides support toproject teams to speed up timelyimplementationofvariousactivities.For example, it provides English-Frenchtranslationsupportforcriticaldocuments, hosts exhibitions and

ingABSnewsletterstospecifiedaudi-ences. The teamalsoprovidesmediasupport and handles general enquir-ies.Overall, effective implementationof the C&IM strategy has created areceptiveenvironmentfortheprojectinallthetargetcountries.Inthenextphase, the challenge will be to gainacceptance at community levels bygetting farmers to plant nutrition-enriched sorghum varieties and con-sumerstotrytheABSproduct.

holdsC&IMtrainingcoursesspecificto theprojectmilestones.The teamplays a critical role in getting aninternalunderstandingandbuy-inoftheprojectroadmaps;inparticular,itidentifies cross-functional activitieswith the Nutrition, Regulatory Af-fairsandBreedingteams.

Other core activities include main-tenance of the project websites andintranet, circulationof talkingpointswithintheconsortiumanddispatch-

An article on the ABS project on the UC Berkeley website

: Journalists attend a training session organised by the ABS communication team


Overall,effectiveimplementationoftheC&IMstrategyhascreatedareceptiveenvironmentfortheprojectinallthetargetcountries

“Financial Mail (South Africa) article on ABS greenhouse trial permit approval in South Africa


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Comprehensive Strategy to Address Geneflow Issues

Over the last five years, the ABSProjecthasmadesubstantialprogressinlayingoutplansandinterventionsto address the sorghum gene flowconcerns through three approaches.First,ageneflowexpertwashiredtodevelopanexhaustivedescriptionofsorghumgeneflowconcernsandre-medialmeasures.Second,apanelofexpertsongeneflowwasconstituted;theydevelopedanopinionpaperonsorghum gene flow, recommendingspecificexperiments.Third,NebraskaState University and the UniversityofNairobiconductedexperimentsontheimpactofgeneflow.

Themainoutcomesofthefirstexpertanalysiswere:(i)thekeyissuetoad-dress fromascientificperspective istheimpact or effectofthegeneflow;(ii)however,thequestioncannotbeansweredfromascientificperspectivealoneandinformationontheprocessofgeneflowshouldalsobeprovided,such as how far does pollen travel,whatarethemeansofgeneflow,etc.;and(iii)thatABS nutritional genes are unlikely to have a negative impact on the environmentbutsupportingdatashould be provided through experi-ments.

ABS further engaged six expertsqualified invariousdisciplinesperti-nenttogeneflow—suchasecology,genetics and plant breeding. Theirkeyfindings/recommendationswere:

ABS2 confined field trials in the USA (Photo Credit: Pioneer)

Overthelastfiveyears,theABSProjecthasmadesubstantialprogressinlayingoutplansandinterventionstoaddressthesorghumgeneflowconcerns

“Different sorghum landraces (Photo Credit: INERA), Bottom, Facing page Top and Bottom


i) Gene flow between cultivatedand wild sorghum occurs withsome frequency. Neutral genesfrom cultivated sorghum suchas the nutritional genes used indevelopingABSarenotexpectedto have a selective advantage inthewild;

ii) Gene flow from crop plants towild relatives or landraces hasresulted mainly in an increasein genetic diversity. Gene flowfrom ABS sorghum into wildsorghumorlandracesisthereforenotexpectedtoalterthegeneticdiversity any differently thangene flow from other sorghumvarieties;

iii) There isunlikely tobeanyenvi-ronmental impact like yield lossincropsduetoincreasesinpestpressureorweediness,orlossofdiversity in floraor faunaduetoinvasiveness, or toxicity due tothepresenceofABSgenesincul-tivatedorwildsorghum,whichisacommonregulatoryconcern;

iv) A thorough characterization ofthe transgenic plant comparedto the non-transgenic plant, foragronomic performance, fitness-relatedcharacteristics,toxicity,ornutritional composition, woulddemonstrate that there havebeen no significant unintendedchanges,andsupporttheassess-mentthatnegativeenvironmentalimpact following gene flow fromABSsorghumisunlikely;

v) Astudytocomparefitness-relat-edcharacteristics in ‘ABSxwild’hybridsand‘non-ABSxwild’hy-bridswouldprovideevidencethatunexpectedgene-interactionswillnotsignificantlyaltertheweedi-ness or invasiveness of hybrids.This comparison would provideadditional confidence that nega-tiveenvironmentalimpactrelatedtogeneflowisunlikely;

vi) Thepanelpreparedamanuscriptto describe these opinions andtheirbases,whichhasbeenpub-lishedbyNature Biotechnology.

“GeneflowfromABSsorghumintowildsorghumorlandracesisthereforenotexpectedtoalterthegeneticdiversityanydifferentlythangeneflowfromothersorghumvarieties


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Summary of the expert report on sorghum gene flowThekeyfindingswere1:

i) Geneflowbetweencultivatedandwildsorghumoccurswithsomefrequency.Neutralgenesfromcultivatedsor-ghumasthenutritionalgenesusedindevelopingABSarenotexpectedtohaveaselectiveadvantageinthewild;

ii) Geneflowfromcropplantstowildrelativesorlandraceshasresultedmainlyinanincreaseingeneticdiversity.ThepanelthereforedoesnotexpectthatgeneflowfromABSsorghumintowildsorghumorlandraceswillalterthegeneticdiversitymarkedly;

iii) Environmentalimpact,acommonregulatoryconcern,isunlikely;

iv) A thoroughcharacterizationof the transgenicplant compared to thenon-transgenicwoulddemonstrate thattherehavebeennosignificantunintendedchanges;

v) AstudytocomparefitnesscharacteristicsofABSandwildhybridsandnon-ABSandwildhybridswouldprovideevidencethatunexpectedgene-interactionswillnotworsenthenegativecharacteristicsofhybrids.

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 panelThe panel consists of six members:

• Barb Schall: ProfessorofBiology,WashingtonUniversityinSt.LouisandMemberoftheNationalAcademyofSci-ences.Heinvestigatestheevolutionaryprocesswithinplantpopulationsusingawiderangeoftechnologyincludingmoleculartechniques.CollaborationwithresearchersfromtheMissouriBotanicalGarden,spansmolecularevolutionofspecificDNAsequencestohigher-levelsystematicsandanalysisofdevelopmentalpatterns.

• Norm Ellstrand: Professor ofGenetics,University ofCalifornia,Riverside.He focuseson (a) gene flowandhy-bridizationasfactorsintheevolutionofincreasedinvasiveness;(b)consequencesofunintentionalgeneflowfromdomesticatedplantstotheirrelatives;and(c)positiveandnegativeimpactofgeneticallyengineeredcrops,especiallywithregardtounintentionaltransgeneflow.

• Jeff Pederson: Research;Geneticist,USDA/ARS,Lincoln,Nebraska.Strongbackgroundinsorghumproductdevelop-ment.Presentresearchincludesenhancingtheenergyyieldandnutrientvalueofsorghumbymodifyingstructuralandstoragecarbohydratesanddevelopingsystemsfordeploymentoftransgenicsorghum.

• Alan Raybould:ScientificFellow,SyngentaCorporation,UnitedKingdom.Expertinenvironmentalriskassessment.Highlypublishedandrespectedwithinthebroaderregulatorycommunityforapplyingquantitativemeasurementstoriskanalysisincropplants,withconsiderableexperienceintransgeniccropriskassessments.

• Patrick Ayiecho Olweny: Geneticist/PlantBreeder.MemberofParliamentforMuhoroniConstituency,KenyaNationalAssembly.Thirtyyears’experienceinagricultureandrelatedactivities.Formerprofessor,UniversityofNairobiandMasenoUniversity.

• Jeremy Ouedraogo:Geneticist.MemberofParliamentinBurkinaFaso.CowpearesearchwhileatINERAinBurkinaFaso.


Background to gene flowGeneflowisanymovementofgenesfromonepopulationtoanother.1Itisthenaturalexchangeofgeneticmaterialandplaysaroleintheabilityofspeciestoadaptandevolve.Whengenesarecarriedtoapopulationwherethosegenesdidnotpreviouslyexist,geneflowcanbeanimportantsourceofgeneticvariation.

Interbreedingbetweencultivatedplantsand theirwild relatives is constantly takingplace.However, it isnot themovementofgenesthatisofconcern,buttheeffectsofthetransferredgenesintothenewgenepool.

ThepotentialforgeneflowtowildrelatedspeciesandlandracesisofpriorityconcerntotheABSProject,whosegoalistodeveloptransgenicsorghumforAfricausinggenesfromdifferentsources.

ThecentreoforiginanddiversityofsorghumisinAfrica.ItisintheEthiopia-SudanregionofAfricathatsorghumwasfirstdomesticatedandwhereitstillremainsamajorcrop.Thereareseveralwildandweedyrelativesgrowingalongsidethecultivatedsorghums.

Geneflowinsorghumhasnotbeenextensivelystudied.However,existingdatasuggestthatitoccursreadilybetweenthecropandnearbyorsympatricweedypopulations,althoughveryrarelytodistant,more-or-lesstruly‘wild’popula-tions.2Gene flow fromcrop towild relatives in sorghumdoesoccurwith some frequency, resultingmainly in anincreaseingeneticdiversity.

GeneflowfromcultivatedtowildferalsorghumshasbeenwelldocumentedintheUnitedStates,andstudiesshowthattheout-crossingratesareverylowcomparedtothoseofmaize.ASouthAfricanstudyoncrop-to-cropgeneflowinSorghum bicolor revealed strongevidenceofintrogressionofGM-sorghumintoothercropswhencultivatedsorghumis deployed.3A 2008 study on sorghum crop-to-wild gene flow in Ethiopia andNiger showed that gene transferfromcultivatedsorghumtowildpopulationsislikelytobewidespread.4A2009environmentalriskassessmentforcrop-to-wildgene flowconcludedthatasymmetricgene flowoccurred fromcultivatedsorghumto itswild/weedyrelativesatalocalscaleintraditionalfarmingsystemsinKenya.5AnotherstudyshowedthatKenyansorghumfarmersusepracticesthatcanpromoterapidspreadandintermixingofgenesofcultivatedandwild/non-cultivatedvarieties.6INERAconductedaGeneFlowTrialPollencompetitionofredseededsorghumvarietyinSaria,BurkinaFaso.Estimatesoffitnessofhybridsandrateofhybridformationbetweencultivatedandwild/weedysorghumweremade,andareportpreparedbyICRISAT.TheestimatesshowthatgeneflowfromABSsorghumwillpersistinthewildpopulationsatlowfrequencyandthatimpactwillbelargelyneutral.

Itthereforefollowsthat,whenGMsorghumisgrowninstandardconditions,transgenesarelikelytobetransferredtoandpersistinthewildpopulationsaswithothergenesfromcultivatedsorghum.2

Toenhancethereliabilityoftheresearchfindings,apanelofsixexperts(see story on page 30)wasassembledtoreviewthefindings.

Endnotes1. 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. Depart-ment 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

TheimportantquestionwithregardtotheABSProjectis:WilltherebeanyharmfulconsequenceswhenthetransgenesfromABS

enterthewildpopulationsthroughgeneflow?

Answer:TransgenesfromABSsorghumwillpersistinthewildpopulationsatlowfrequencyandimpactwillbelargelyneutral.


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Intellectual Property Management

IPrightsareimportantastheyprotectthevalueofcritical

inventionssuchastheworld’sfirstsorghumgenetictransformationsystemcreatedbythe

ABSProject

“

ThetermIntellectualProperty(IP)referstoanumberofdistincttypesofcreationsofthemindforwhichpropertyrightsarerecognized,usuallyunderalegalsystem.Such laws grant the owners certainexclusiverightstoavarietyofintangibleassets. IP rights are important as theyprotect the value of critical inventionssuchastheworld’sfirstsorghumgenetictransformation system created by theABSProject.

Theproject’sIPMGmanagestheintellec-tual property issues within the consor-tium.Theyensurethatprojectmembershave the freedom-to-operate (FTO) theproject technology, negotiate access totechnologieswithtechnologydonorsandotherparties, and facilitatepatentingofnew technologies developed to enablefree access to the technology for publicgood.

The teamenforcescore IPvalueswithintheprojectsuchastheCharitableObjec-tive that seeks toprovide access to theknowledge created by the project andtosupplythefinalABSproductthroughaffordableandaccessiblemeansfreefromroyaltiesandatano-profitbasis.Italsoenforces the Global Access Strategy,wherebytheIPdonatedtoandgeneratedby the project is available to the globalpublic. That is, farmerswill have accesstothefinalproductatanaffordablepriceandtheknowledgegeneratedthroughtheprojectisavailableforfurtherresearch.

The team is led by AATF, with supportfrom IP managers from the consortiummemberinstitutions.ItmanagesIP,pro-prietary information and aspects ofregulatory compliance across the board.TheIPMGisalsoresponsibleforupdatingnewtechnologies,and,whereapplicable,assessing the suitability for patentingsomeofthetechnologydevelopedbytheprojectforpublicgood.

The IPMGconductedan inventoryofalltechnologies–genes,promotersandas-sociated geneticmaterials – and relatedIPbeingusedortobeusedintheproject.AnFTOanalysis,conductedimmediatelyaftertheprojectstarted,determinedtheextent to which the ABS Project couldutilize technologies without infringingtheIPrightsofowners.

Dr. Jacob Mignouna, AATF team leader for the ABS project


Capacity building initiatives

Afreedom-to-operateanalysis,conducted

immediatelyaftertheprojectstarted,determinedtheextenttowhichtheABSProjectcouldutilizetechnologies

withoutinfringingtheIPrightsof

owners

“CSIR researchers Dr Luke Mehloand Dr. Andile Grootboom spentextensive periods at the Pioneerlaboratories in theUS to familiarizethemselves with the cutting-edgemolecular biology and plant modi-fication techniques. They studiedadvanced scientific techniques,protocol and strategy designs forconstructionofplanttransformation.GrootboomwashostedatPioneerforsixweekstocarryoutcriticalanalysisofthekafirinsuppressionevents.BytheendoftheirfirstweekatPioneerinJohnston,thetwovisitingAfricanscientists had already experimentedwith an alternative way to geneti-callyengineer crops,Agrobacterium-mediatedtransformation.

According to Mehlo, this “enabledthe project to be kick-started” andhas resulted in the novel tech-niques developed to date. Mehlo, apost-doctoral scientist and seniorresearcher in plant biotechnology,

completedhisprogramand,after18monthsatPioneer,returnedtoCSIRtomakeuseofthetechniqueshehadlearnt.

Getu Beyenne, an Ethiopian nativeworking in South Africa, joined theother scientists at Pioneer to focuson the ABS Project R&D in genetictransformation.“Thisisalife-chang-ing project that could save a lot oflives,”saidBeyenne,apost-doctoralresearchfellowatCSIR.

Kenneth Mburu from KenyattaUniversityalsotrainedatPioneerongenetictransformation.

Complementary funding from theBiosafetyResearchNetworkenabledCSIR MTech student, Nompume-leloMkhonza,whowas selected torepresent South Africa, to attendan eight-week course on biosafetyassessment at the University ofNebraska in the US. She has sincecompleted her MTech (cum laude),

Dr. Luke Mehlo (left) and Dr. Andile Grootboom (right) of the CSIR analyse sorghum under a microscope during their training at Pioneer


Page83

whichwasfinancedbyCSIRandtheABSProject.

An MSc student from CSIR, ZodwaMbambo,embarkedonafour-monthvisit to the Brazilian AgriculturalResearch Corporation (Embrapa),focusing on related research withinthe ABS Project, including similarworkonsoybean.

Breeders from KARI, ICRISAT, andINERA were trained in breeding atPioneer, with an emphasis on highthroughput sorghum breeding forcommercialpurposes.ClarisseBarro,asorghumbreederatINERA,waspartoftheteamthatunderwentthreeweeksofintensivetraininginnovelbreedingtechniques at Pioneer facilities. “Wereceived theoretical and practicaltraining on the selection methods,data management, germplasm as-sessment, development of varieties,hybrids creation and various related

subjectsandfieldexercises.”Thenewknowledge served to reinforce previ-ous experience. However, workingwithhybridswasanewexperienceasmostoftheirlocalresearchfocusedonopen-pollinatedvarieties.

Mahamadi Ouedraogo, a scientistfrom Burkina Faso, worked as aresearch fellowatPioneer.Followinghis fellowship, Ouedraogo appliedhisexperienceandknowledgetothedevelopmentofbiofortifiedsorghumtomeettheABSProjectgoals.

In thepast fiveyears,DuPontbusi-ness Pioneer hosted 12 researchfellowsfromAfrica.

Under the project, 15 scientists fromKARI (Kenya) and INERA (BurkinaFaso)weretrainedtocarryoutglass-house and confined field studies ofABSevents.Inaddition,scientistsfromthese institutions and from KEPHISwere trained by Africa Harvest staff

ontheexecutionofcontained(green-house)experimentationincompliancewithregulatoryrequirements.

Itisanticipatedthatthroughoutthelifespanoftheproject,alargenumberofyoungpostgraduatestudentswillbenefit from training in some form,eitherwithCSIRorwithoneof theother two South African partners(theUniversityofPretoriaandARC)–helpingtoincreasecapacityinthescience, something that is desper-atelyneeded.

Additionally, the cross functionalteams of the ABS Project undergostrategic planning and review ses-sions, where both scientists andprofessionals from other disciplinesshare knowledge and experiencesthat sharpen the skill levels acrossthe whole group. Both formal andinformalprocesseshaveimpactedthecareersofover70scientistsinvolvedintheproject.

“Thisisalife-changingprojectthatcouldsavealotoflives,”saidBeyenne,apost-doctoralresearch

fellowatCSIR

“

Name of scientist Field of training Institution1 DrLukeMehlo Transformationtechnologies CSIR

2 DrAndileGrootboom Transformationtechnologies CSIR

3 DrGetuBeyene Transformationtechnologies CSIR

4 MrsNompumeleloMkhonza Biosafetyassessments,testsandmonitoring CSIR

5 DrJoelMutisya Transformationtechnologies KARI

6 MrsBosiboriBett Biosafetyassessments,testsandmonitoring KARI

7 DrClementKamau Breeding KARI

8 DrMaryMgonja Breeding KARI

9 MrKennethMburu Transformationtechnologies KU/AH

10 ProfShireenAseem Transformationtechnologies AGERI

11 MrMahamadiOuedraogo Breeding INERA

12 MrsClarisseBarro Breeding INERA

13 DrSilasObukosia Biosafetyassessments,testsandmonitoring AH

14 DrNemeraShargie Breeding ARC

Scientists trained by the ABS Project.


Key

Issu

es• CSIR’sroleastheAfricantechnologyrecipientfortheABSProject• Theneedformulti-cerealR&D,especiallyof‘orphan’cereals• Indicationsongeneflow• Cost-benefitanalysisofbiofortification• Howbiofortificationcomplementsothernutritionalinitiatives• ProjectedAfricaneconomicbenefitfromnutritionalenhancement• Projectedsocio-economicimpactofbiofortification• Impactofbiofortificationonagronomicproductivity

CSIR’s Role as African Technology Recipient

From the beginning, technologytransfer and capacity building wereidentified as critical ingredients fortheproject’sfuture.Fortheseaspectstoworkeffectively,theprojectsetoutto strengthen the human and infra-structuralcapacityofkeyconsortiummembers. The technology transferstrategyalsoinvolvedcapacityreten-tion by entering into internationaltechnologicalpartnerships.

Overall,theprojectfacedanumberoftrainingchallenges,including:

• Establishingandservicing5post-doctoralpositions

• Establishing and administeringyear-longsabbaticals in thebestlabsinSouthAfricaandtheUS

• Recruitment of suitable candi-dates in genetic engineering,regulatoryandbiosafetyaspects

TheCouncilforScientificandIndus-trialResearch(CSIR)inSouthAfricawas identified as the best Africaninstitution for technology transferandcapacitybuildingfortheproject,given its history of leading Africanresearch in biotechnology. It servesas the bridge from the scientificcommunitywithinPioneertoAfrica,ensuringthattechnologyisproperlytransferred to and implemented inAfrica.

Itisoneoftheleadingscientificandtechnology research developmentandimplementationorganizationsinAfrica. It has a staff complement of2,500personnel, includingover700PhDs/MScs in eightmajor operatingunits.Internationally,ithascoopera-tionagreementswithmajoroverseasR&D organizations and companiesand is currently working with 18Africancountries.

Technology transfer and infra-structure development

At the inception of the project,the CSIR already possessed thehumanitarian research/use licensefrom Syngenta for the vitamin Agene constructs of Phytoene de-saturase (frommaize) andCarotene

TheCSIRinSouthAfricawasidentifiedasthebestAfricaninstitutionfortechnology

transferandcapacitybuildingfortheproject,givenitshistoryofleadingAfricanresearchinbiotechnology.

“Dr. Rachel Chikwamba, CSIR team leader of the ABS project


desaturase(fromErwinia uredovora).Inaddition,italsohadasub-licensefromSyngentatousethePMI(phos-phomannose isomerase) system forbiolistic transformation in sorghum.These resources enabledABS scien-tists to conduct the transformationofsorghum.

TheCSIRandPioneerformedpartofthetechnologygroupoftheproject.Pioneer donated the initial ABStechnologytotheformer,whichtheycustomizedandenhancedforuseinAfrica; this included patented sor-ghumgenetics,seedsandknow-how.

Theprojecthasplayedapivotalrolein establishing scientific infrastruc-ture; in particular, in equipping thelaboratories at the CSIR. The CSIRhasupgradeditsresearchinfrastruc-ture,notablyitsgreenhousefacilities,whichnowcomplywithworld-classstandards for genetic modificationresearch. Two of its greenhouseswereupgradedtolevel3biosafetyforGMOactivities.

“Theprojecthasplayedapivotalroleinestablishingscientificinfrastructure;inparticular,inequippingthelaboratoriesattheCSIR

CSIR: A World-Class Organization

AttheCSIR,skillsand facilities inbiotechnology,chemistry,agro-processing, foodscienceandengineeringcouplewithindustrialandcommercialexperiencetoprovidecompetitiveandcutting-

edgebioscienceknowledge.Allexpertiseistranslatedintoinnovationsandsolutionstoimprovehealth,foodsecurityandenergyscenariosinSouthAfricaandsub-SaharanAfrica.

TheCSIRhaspreviousexperienceinmanagingandparticipatinginnumerouscoop-erativeprograms, including thedevelopmentof transgeniccrops (withaparticular

focusonAfricancerealcrops),developmentanduseofmolecularmarkersforcropimprovement,safetyassessmentoftransgeniccrops,andidentificationofnovelgenesandsecondarymetabolitesfromSouthAfrica’sgeneticdiversity.Projects have been funded by organizations such asUSAID, the EC Framework Programs, and the SouthAfricangovernmentaswellasprivatecompanies.

TheCSIRworksinclosecollaborationwithARC,AfricaHarvest,Syngenta,Pioneer,ICRISAT,andlinkstocommunityorganizationswhichwilltakeresponsibilityforimplementationofthedevelopedtechnology.TheCropTransgenicsGroupoftheCSIRBio/ChemtekfunctionsasascientificcoordinatorofEuropeanCommissionfundedprojects,col-laboratingwithvariousEuropeanandAfricanpartnerships.

ThekeyCSIRscientistsoftheABSProjectareallqualified,experiencedandaccomplishedpeopleintheirrespectivefields.Theirbiographies,whichfollow,areanimpressivedescriptionoftheirjourneyuntilnow.


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The need for multi-cereal R&D

Cereals are theworld's basic staple food and providemuch of the requiredenergyandproteinformanypopulations.1Cerealplantssuchaswheat,rice,corn,barley,rye,oats,andmilletproducegrainsthatarethebaseoftheworld'sfoodsupply.Theirimportanceasfoodforhumansandanimalsresultsincon-siderableinvestmentinR&D.4

CerealsareimportantfoodandcashcropsinAfrica.Maize,forexample,isamajorstaplefoodandsourceofcaloriesformorethan300millionpeople.Itisalsoanimportantfoddercropandindustrialrawmaterial.2

However,duetothepopularityof“exotic”cerealssuchasmaizeandwheat,researchonAfrica’sindigenouscerealssuchassorghumandmillethasbeenneglected.

Theso-called“orphancrops”containmanyhealth-protectingcompoundssuchasphytochemicals, vitamins and indigestible carbohydrates, but the textureandtasteoffunctionalcerealproductscanbelessthanideal.However,therearetechnologiesforproducingawiderangeofcerealproductswithdifferenthealth-promotingpropertiesandmoreacceptablesensoryquality.3

Therearetechnologiesforproducingawiderangeofcerealproductswithdifferenthealth-promotingpropertiesandmoreacceptablesensoryquality

“

An array of grains and legumes commonly consumed in Africa


Inspiteofthelonghistoryofcerealprocessing, many aspects of cerealquality are still poorly understood.Currently, cereal research in Africaisundertaken inuniversities, and ingovernmental and private institu-tions.

Someoftheareasunderinvestigationinclude:

• Studiesofthechemicalcomposi-tion and physical structure ofcereals and their relationship tograinquality.Thequalitystudiescovernutritionalquality,process-ingquality,andproductquality.

• Researchonnewcereal varietieswithbetterquality,diseaseresist-ance,andyield.4

AccordingtotheCSIR,duetoclimatechange, cereal production could fallby50%inpartsofsouthernAfricaby2080.In2008,SouthAfrica'sgovern-ment said climate change could cutmaize production in the country,which is the biggest producer ofmaize on the continent, by 20%within15to20years.5

Among small-scale farmers, thethreat of climate change is higherbecause of widespread poverty.There is an increased likelihood ofcrop failures, livestock diseases andthereforelivelihoodinsecurity.Africahastoturntomoredrought-resistantstrains of cereals, and relymore onGMstrains.5

Cereals aremostly grown by small-scale farmers.Demographicpressureandtheconsequentdemandformorefood are driving small-scale agricul-ture towards greater intensification.Most crops are produced continu-ously without any fallow period oruse of external inputs. Other chal-lenges to agricultural intensificationand high productivity include theuse of inappropriate varieties andcropping systems, high pest pres-sure, erratic moisture availability,highpost-harvestlosses,pooraccesstoinputandoutputmarkets,lackofcredit services, unfriendly policies,and low research and extension ca-pacityinnationalprograms.2

Most of these constraints interactinaverycomplexmannerandresultin unsustainable farming practicesand land degradation,which have asignificant impact on food security,

Thereisgreatscopeforneglectedcerealssuchas

sorghumandmillettoplayanimportantroleinacontinentthreatenedbyclimatechangeandpopulationincrease

“

levelsofpovertyandtheenvironmentinbothruralandurbancommunities.Thenumberofmalnourishedpeoplecontinues to increase due to lowintakeofenergy,protein,andmicro-nutrients.2

The above challenges can be ad-dressed by generating resilient cropgermplasm,whichwillbe integratedwithappropriatesoil,crop,andpestmanagement practices. Biotechnol-ogy is one of the technologies thatcanbeusedtodrivetheR&Dofim-proved cereals. The yield-enhancingtechnologies will be combinedwithimproved post-harvest value-addi-tionandlabor-savingtechnologiestooptimizeproductivity.2

It is also necessary to develop ap-proaches to link producers to inputand output markets. Higher cropproductivitycanbesustained inthelongrunonlyifefficientmarketsandcommercialization support it. More

importantly, access to inputs is acritical constraint to improved pro-ductivity. Also promotion of value-adding processing would stimulateproduction,becauseitwouldexpandthe utilization andmarket potentialofcrops,and isakeytothegreatercommercializationofcereals.2

Cereal chemists engaged in productdevelopment need to be creative todevelop new products or processes.This could include findingnewusesfor under-utilized cereals and ce-real by-products; formulating newproducts from existing ingredients;working on improved processes tomanufacture final products; improv-ingtheflavorinaproduct;measuringnutrients;orconductingtests.4

Inadditiontocreativity,productde-velopmentrequiresknowledgeoftheproperties of cereals andhow thesepropertiesareaffectedbycombiningcereals with other ingredients andusingdifferentprocessingmethods.4

A case in point is the snack foodsmarket inAfrica.Thegrowthofthismarketislargelydependentonmaizeandwheat.YetprojectsinAfricaandSouthAmericahaveshownthatserv-ing traditional grains sprinkledwithjustalittleimaginationcanstimulatenotonlymoderntastebudsbutthelocaleconomyaswell.6

There is great scope for neglectedcereals such as sorghum and milletto play an important role in a con-tinentthreatenedbyclimatechangeand population increase. Advancedresearch will ensure that measuresareputinplaceforsustainablefoodsecurity and consequently, positiveeconomicgrowth.

A head of sorghum


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The ABS Project is just one of the initiativesfocusingonsorghumresearchinAfrica.Sorghumisauniquelyversatilecropwithamyriadofad-vantageousproperties,whichhaveattractedtheattentionofresearchers.

ChiefamongsttheseprojectsistheInternationalSorghumandMilletCollaborativeResearch Sup-port Program (INTSORMIL CRSP) which hasfocusedonsorghumresearchandbreedingsince1979.CurrentlyresearchprojectsareoninbothWestandSouthernAfricatoconferresistancetobioticandabioticstress,andimprovegrainqualityand ‘agronomic performance’. Among theWestAfrican collaborators are scientists from variousUSandWestAfricanresearchbodies,aswellasUSAIDandDuPontCropProtection.TheUniversi-tiesof theFreeStateandPretoria,and theARCare among the collaborating institutions for itsSouthernAfricanprogram.

Sorghum research in Africa7

End notes1. 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.wood-headpublishing.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.bioversityinter-national.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-Sorghum GoldenRice.pdf

An array of food products made from sorghum

AUSDA-fundedprojecttogeneticallyengineersorghumwithresistancetotheparasiticStrigaweed(commonlyknownas‘Witch-weed’)iscurrentlyunderway, involving scientists atthe University of California’s DavisandBerkeleycampusesandfromtheKenyatta University in Nairobi. Theproject,whichbeganin2005,iscur-rently testing GM sorghum lines ingreenhouses at KenyattaUniversity,havingfirstconductedgenetictrans-formationof sorghum in theUnitedStates. Confined greenhouse trialsof the GM sorghum lines began inKenyain2009.

InMali andKenya, Biosciences EastandCentralAfrica(BecA-Hub),with

USAIDsupport,iscarryingoutgeneflowstudiesintothepotentialenvi-ronmentalimpactoftheintroductionofGMsorghums.

Theproliferationofsorghumresearchon the African continent has alsospread into the area of marker-assistedselection(MAS).

InUganda,MakerereUniversity,BIO-EARNandtheSwedishUniversityofAgricultural Sciences (SLU) are col-laboratingonresearchinMASforre-sistancetobioticstresses.Additionalresearch is being carried out withinUganda to develop transformativetechniques using locally adaptedsorghumlines.

ResearchonStrigaresistancethrougheithertransformationmethodologiesorMASisalsounderwayatresearchinstitutions in Eritrea, Kenya andthe Sudan through funding fromthe Association for StrengtheningAgriculturalResearch inEasternandSouthernAfrica(ASARECA).

GM sorghum research is embeddedin a paradigmof industrialized agri-culturalvaluechains.Itisenvisionedthattheimprovedsorghumvarietieswillbeputtouseinfullyintegratedprocessing industries, held togetherby long-term contracts betweengrowers, suppliers, producers andretailers.


Cost-benefit analysis of biofortification

The principal cost components forbiofortificationrelatetotheresearchneededtodevelopbiofortifiedvarie-ties and implementation. The costsinclude those of R&D, adaptivebreeding,maintenancebreeding,anddissemination.3

As an international agricultural re-searchsystem is inplace todevelopmodernvarietiesofstaplefoodstuffs,theresearchcostsareessentiallytheincrementalcostsofenhancingmicro-nutrientdensity.Theseresearchcostsarelikelytobethesinglelargestcostcomponentofbiofortificationandarea one-time investment, incurred attheoutset.Itisestimatedthatcostsassociated with plant breeding willaverageabout$400,000peryearpercropovera10-yearperiod,globally.Oncebiofortifiedvarietieshavebeendeveloped, in-country trials andlocal adaptation research costs areincurred, after which routine main-tenancebreedingtoensurethetraitremainsstableisundertaken.Wheresystemsfordisseminationofmodernvarietiesareinplace,suchasinSouthAsia, implementation costs are nilor negligible. Where such systemsare underdeveloped, as in parts ofsub-SaharanAfrica, additional costsareincurredinestablishingseedmul-tiplicationanddelivery systemsandcreatingbothmarketsandconsumerdemand.1

In determining cost-effectiveness,DALYsareusedtocapturebothmor-

Researchcostsarelikelytobethesinglelargestcostcomponentofbiofortificationandareaone-timeinvestment,incurredattheoutset

“

Baseline DALYs in Countries of High Sorghum Consumption

DALYsduetoDeficiencyof: PercentofTotalDALYSCountry VitaminA Iron Zinc TotalDALYs

Nigeria 915,395 452,017 688,131 2,055,543 53%BurkinaFaso 94,505 58,092 71,071 223,668 6%SouthAfrica 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%

bidity and mortality outcomes in asinglemeasure.DALYslostenabletheaddition of morbidity and mortalityoutcomes, and are an annualmeas-ureofdiseaseburden.Thus,itisthesumofyearsoflifelostandtheyearslived with disability, i.e. number ofyearslostbecauseofthepreventable

deathofanindividual,andnumberofyearsspentinill-healthbecauseofapreventablediseaseorcondition.3

Quantificationofthepotentialhealthbenefits of biofortificationhas beendone using the DALY framework, inwhich the current burden ofmicro-

Mrs Muthenge, a sorgum farmer, with Dr. Florence Wambugu in a sorghum field


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nutrientmalnutritionisquantifiedasthe number of DALYs lost. Theper-centagereductioninthisburdenthatcanbeattributabletobiofortificationis computed by considering currentintake levels of the staple food, theadditional amount of micronutrientit is likely to contain, and the per-centage of the population that willconsume thebiofortified food. Plac-ing a dollar valueon DALY benefitsisalwaysproblematic,andauniformbut arbitrary $500 and $1000 perDALY to value benefits have beenusedbyHarvestPlus.Thisrepresentstherangelimitsofpercapitaincomesinmostofthedevelopingworld.1

Applying the above cost-benefitframeworktotargetcropsandcoun-tries suggests that the benefits faroutweigh the costs; biofortificationis a worthwhile investment evenwherethecalculatedbenefitsdonotinclude the enhanced incomes thatmay resultafteradoptingagronomi-cally superior biofortified varieties.For example, the dissemination ofß-carotene-enhanced orange-fleshedsweet potato inUganda is likely tocostlessthanUS$5perDALYsaved,assuming coverage is between 25%and 50%. Vitamin A supplementa-tion is estimated to costUS$12perDALYsaved,butthisassumesa75%coveragerate.1

The budgets of the poor are domi-nated by food costs. A Chadianfamily allocates approximately 85%of its budget to food costs. In theevent of a food price increase, acorresponding fall in incomeoccurs.Any direct intervention in terms ofsupplying the micronutrient is lesscost-effective than biofortification,forthecostofthelatterisoffsetbythefactthatitisaone-timeinvest-ment with low recurrent costs andthepotentialexiststointernationallyshare germplasm. A study showedthatUS$80millioncanbuyvitaminAsupplementsfor80millionpeoplelivinginAsia,outofthe500millionliving on less thanUS$1per day inthe region. On the other hand, aUS$80millioninvestmentcanresultin development of 4–6 biofortifiedstaplecropsthatcanbedisseminatedthroughouttheworld,andusedeveryyear,indefinitely.2

Enhancednutrientintakesfrombiofortifiedcropscan

translateintoimprovedhealthoutcomesandresultinreducedDisability-adjustedlifeyear

(DALY)burden

“

Table 1: Comparison of cost per DALY with respect to different micro-nutrient initiatives2

MICRONUTRIENT METHOD US$/DALYZinc Supplementary 5-18

Biofortify 0.68-9.0Vitamina Supplementary 80-500

Biofortify(goldenrice) 3-20Biofortify(sweetpotato) 4-10

Iron Supplementary 5-16Biofortify(wheat) 0.5-5.5Biofortify(rice) 3-10

ItisevidentfromTable1thatbiofortificationresultsinreducedcostofDALYs.Thebulk(over70%)ofallDALYslostareduetoyearsoflifelostduetopre-maturemortality.Forexample,theDALYs lost fromVADarehigh inAfricancountries, where 0.4–0.8% of the population is affected. In other words,between0.5and1%ofthenationalproductislostduetoVAD.3

EnhancednutrientintakesfrombiofortifiedcropscantranslateintoimprovedhealthoutcomesandresultinreducedDALYburden.Inpessimisticscenarios,costsperDALYsavedinAfricaforcassavaarebetween$124and$137,andformaizebetween$113and$289.ThisisasignificantreductioninDALYs,withpotentialprospectsofacorrespondingincreaseinsocio-economicstatus.AnimportantquestionishowcostsperDALYsavedwithbiofortificationcomparewiththoseassociatedwithothermicronutrientinterventions.Biofortificationappearsrelativelymorecost-effectivethanotherinterventionsinmostregions.Theconsumptionofmorethanonebiofortifiedstapleislikelytohaveanen-hancedimpact.3

End notes1. 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 Nutri-tion. April 2006

2. Winter-Nelson A. 1990. Economics of Agricultural Technology for Nutritional Health. Depart-ment 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


Traditionally, supplementation andfortification (the process of addingnutrientstofoodsduringprocessing)havebeenthetwomainmethodsofcombating micronutrient malnutri-tion,whichaffectsmillionsofpeopleworldwideeveryyear.7

Supplementation is an externalnutritional intervention. It providesessential micronutrients to a targetpopulation, intheformofavitaminpillormicronutrient-richsprinkle. Itis targeted at the individual or thefamilyandcanbeeffectiveonalargescale, as evidenced by Indonesia'sandVietnam'ssuccessfuleliminationof clinical VAD (xerophthalmia).Thesesuccessesweredueinparttoregular and extensive supplementa-tion coverage. The use ofmedicinalapproaches (supplementation) isunviable as a long-term solution.Deficienciesmayreoccur intimesofeconomic or political crisis, indicat-ingthatsupplementationeffortsmaybesubjecttosocialinstability.2

Commercial fortification strategiesare usually directed toward thegeneral population, rather thanthe individual or the family. It in-volves nutritionally enriching foodproducts by adding droplets of the

How biofortification complements other nutritional initiatives

Supplementationprovidesessentialmicronutrientstoatargetpopulation,intheformofavitaminpillormicronutrient-

richsprinkle

“Dr. Florence Wambugu helps in the preparation of porridge


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Table 3: How much can US$75 million buy? 4

Supplementation Fortification BiofortificationVitaminAsupplementa-tionforONEyearto37.5millionpre-schoolchildreninBangladesh,India,andPakistan.

Ironfortificationforoneyearfor375millionpersons,about30%ofthepopulationinBangladesh,India,andPakistan.

Estimatedcostofdevel-opinganddisseminatingironandzinc-densericeandwheatvarietiesforSouthAsia,whichwouldbeavailableyearafteryear.

micronutrients (suchas ironor folicacid)directlytocereals(wheat,rice,andmaize),duringthe firststageofmilling.Consideringthehighlevelofcerealconsumptionglobally,theuseof commercial fortificationhasgreatpotential as a strategy to reducemicronutrient malnutrition and hasbeenusedeffectivelytoraisemicro-nutrient levels in large populations.However, in developing countries inAfrica and parts of Asia,where thefood industry is at a rudimentarystage of development and there arefew structures to ensure the qual-ity of fortified products, commercialfortification has not been as effec-tive. In areas where micronutrientdeficienciesarecommon,thereisnocentralprocessingandqualitycontrolis often inadequate.2 Furthermore,there have been some difficulties inenforcing mandatory fortification.Sincetheprocessisdecentralized,itisexpensivetomonitor.Thecostsoffortification are high relative to theprice of the product, which pushesuppricesandtemptsbothproducersandconsumerstoignoretherules.1

The conventional strategies of sup-plementationandcommercialfortifi-cationaddressmostlythesymptomsrather than the underlying cause oftheproblem.5

Effectiveness of fortification: A South African Case Study8

To address micronutrient deficien-cies, especially among the mostvulnerable,SouthAfricabeganafoodfortificationprogramin2004,addingiron,zinc,vitaminsAandBandfolicacid tomaize andwheat flour. But,fiveyearson,theprojectwasjudged

a resounding failure. The prevalenceofvitaminA,zincandirondeficien-ciesinchildrenhadincreased.

PartoftheproblemisthattheRDAsarebasedonadultandnotchildfoodportions. Children, who are morevulnerable,eatlessandsoneedmorehighlyfortifiedfood.Partly,theprob-lemisalsothatcookingcandestroythevitamins.But,mostimportantly,itisbecausechemicalisolateshaveasignificantly lower bioavailability—theextenttowhichsomeone'sbodycanabsorbthemicronutrient—thanwhole foods. The iron used in theSouth African fortification program,for example, has a bioavailability oflessthan2%.

Biofortification versus conventional fortificationUnlike commercial fortification,biofortificationdoesnotrelyonfoodprocessingor themilling process toincorporate micronutrients into thediet. Biofortification differs from or-dinaryfortificationbecauseitfocuseson making plant foods more nutri-tiousastheplantsgrow,ratherthanaddingnutrients to the foodswhenthey are being processed. Althoughthe conventional approaches havebeen successful when dealing withtheurbanpoor,theytendtorequire

access to effective markets andhealthcaresystems,whichoftenjustdonotexistinruralareas.2

Biofortification is also fairly cost ef-fectiveaftertheinitiallargeresearchinvestmentand,infact,whereseedscan be distributed, the costs ofgrowing biofortified foods are nil ornegligible.Unliketherecurringcostsof traditional supplementation andfortification programs, a one-timeinvestmentinabiofortifiedcropcangeneratenewvarietiesforfarmerstogrowforyearstocome(seeTable3).Itisthismultiplieraspectofbiofortifi-cation,acrosstimeanddistance,thatmakes itsocost-effectivean invest-mentasopposedtosupplementationwhich is comparatively expensiveand requires continued financingovertime,andmaybejeopardizedbyfluctuatingpoliticalinterests.3,4

Biofortified cropsoffer a rural-basedinterventionthat,bydesign,initiallyreach themore remote populations,whichcompriseamajorityoftheun-dernourishedinmanycountries,andthenextendtourbanpopulationsasproductionsurplusesaremarketed.Inthisway,thisstrategycomplementsfortification and supplementationprograms, which work best in cen-tralized urban areas and then reachinto rural areas andonly into thoseareaswithgoodinfrastructure.6

End notes1. 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/how-cost-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


Micronutrient deficiency also hasmanyinvisibleeconomiceffectsthatare widely underestimated, becausethey sap the energy of workingpeople and limit the learning abilityofchildren,costingbillionsofdollarsin lost productivity in developingcountries.29

Nutritional enhancement wouldbenefitAfricannations’economiesinthefollowingways:

• farmersandotherlaborerswouldexert more effort, leading tobigger harvests and increasedproduction and hence, increasedcontribution to the nationalproduct;

• well-nourished citizens wouldhelpavoidwasteinpublicspend-ingbecausetheirabilitytoachievetheir physical and intellectualpotentialwouldbegreater;

• scarce resources in the healthsector,which are often spent on

Projected African economic benefit from nutritional enhancement

treatingdiseases,couldbeavoidedthroughadequatenutrition, thusloweringhealthcarecosts;

• governments’ spending on pri-mary and secondary education

could yield much higher returnsif children benefit from healthynutrition during the critical firsttwoyearsoftheirlivestoenablehealthybraindevelopment.28,29

ABS management tours the gene flow experiment at ICRISAT’s KARI fields in Kenya

A journalist takes notes during a tour of an ICRISAT sorghum field


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Projected socio-economic impact of biofortification

SixoutoftheeightobjectivesintheMDGsarerelatedtomicronutrientdeficiency.Togetherwithconventionalinterven-tions,suchassupplementationandindustrialfortification,biofortificationofcropswithessentialmicronutrientscouldgreatlycontributetoachievingtheseMDGs.3Table2summarizesthepotentialeconomicandenvironmentalimpactofbiofortification.

Table 2: Summary of biofortification impact 2, 4

IMPACT HOW BIOFORTIFICATION ACHIEVES IMPACT

Reducechildmortality Reducesunder-fivemortalityandmorbidity;infantmortalityratesmayfallfromimprovedmicronutrientstatusofmothersduringpregnancy.

Improvematernalhealth Reducesmortalityandmorbidityofmothers.

Eradicateextremepovertyandhunger

Improvesworkproductivity,mentalandpsychomotorperformance,andappetite,andpromotesfastergrowth.Biofortificationtargetstheruralpoor,inparticular,whoconsumelargeamountsoffoodstaplesandlittleelse.

Improvelearningskills Improvescognitiveandpsychomotorabilities.Childrenwhodowellinschoolaremorelikelytowanttostayinschoolandtheirparentsaremorelikelytosupporttheireducation.

CombatHIV/AIDS,malaria,andotherdiseases

Theseverity,mortalityfrom,andperhapsincidenceofHIV-AIDS,malaria,tuberculosisandotherdiseasesareexacerbatedbypoormicronutrientstatus.

Ensureenvironmentalsustainability

Rootsofbiofortifiedcropsarenotonlymorediseaseresistant,butalsobetterabletopenetratedeficientsubsoils, andsomakeuseofthemoistureandmineralscontainedinsubsoils.Thisreducestheneedforfertilizersandimprovesdroughttolerance.

Inaddition,fewerherbicidesandpesticideswouldhavetobeused.Thesecharacteristicsbenefitthosewhosesoilsaredeficientintracemineralsonrainfedlandandwhoarethusamongthepoorestfarmers

A Burkinabe woman prepares sorghum biscuits


Improvedwaterandlanduse

Higheryieldsperhectaremakefarmingmoreefficientandproductiveonlimitedlandarea.Farmerscanproduceincreasingamountsoffoodwithoutincreasingtheuseofarableland;thishasamajorimpactonprotectingwildlifehabitats.

Reduceduseofenergyandfertilizers

Biotechcropshavehelpedreducetheuseofpesticidesforseveraleconomicallyimportantcrops,contributingtoreductionsinfuel,waterandpackaging,whichareeliminatedfromthemanufacturing,distributionandapplicationprocesses.Theavailabilityofbiotechcropscansignificantlyreducetheamountofnitrogenfarmersapplytofields,whichcanincreaseon-farmproductivityandprofitabilitywhiledecreasingthepotentialenvironmentalimpactfromnitrogenfertilizeruse.

Mitigationofclimatechangeandreducinggreenhousegases

BiotechcropsarealreadycontributingtoreducingCO2emissionsbyprecludingtheneedforploughingasignificantportionofcroppedland,conservingsoil,particularlymoisture,reducingpesticidesprayingaswellassequesteringCO2.Permanentsavingsincarbondioxideemissionsthroughreduceduseoffossil-basedfuelssincefewerinsecticideandherbicidespraysarerequired

Increasesproductivity Thisisparticularlyimportantinregionsoftheworldwhichsufferfromdifficultclimaticconditions.

Betterqualityoflifeforfarmworkers.

Higherfarmincomes Higherprofitsforfarmersandhigherincomesforworkerstranslatetoincreasedproductivityandthus,increasedcontributiontothenationalincomeorGDP.Itisevidentthattheuptakeofbiofortifiedcropscanresultinimprovedeconomicperformanceforthecountry.Biofortificationhasevenbeentoutedasoneofthemostimportantstepsfordevelopingnationstobreakoutofextremepoverty.ByreducingthenumberofDALYslostduetoundernutrition,biofortificationcouldhelpdevelopingnationstoboosttheireconomicoutputandprosperity5.

The adoption of nutritionally im-proved crops will help improve thehealthandwell-beingoftheworld'spoorest people, but this advance-mentwillonlybepossibleifpoliticaldifferencesoverthedevelopmentanduseoftransgeniccropsaresetaside,andtheirdeploymentandcultivationis regulated according to robust,science-basedcriteria.1

Endnotes1. Naqvi S. 2009. ‘Transgenic multivitamin

corn through biofortification of en-dosperm 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/cropbio-techupdate/article/default.asp?ID=5355

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/

“ Thisadvancementwillonlybepossibleifpoliticaldifferencesoverthedevelopmentanduseoftransgeniccropsareset

aside,andtheirdeploymentandcultivationisregulated

accordingtorobust,science-basedcriteria


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Impact of biofortification on agronomic productivity

Goodnutritionalbalance isas impor-tant to disease resistance and stresstoleranceinplantsasitisinhumans.Micronutrient deficiency in plantsgreatly increases their susceptibil-ity to diseases, especially fungal rootdiseases. Efficiency in the uptake ofmicronutrientsfromthesoil improvesdisease resistance in plants andreduces fungicide use. Breeding formicronutrient efficiency can conferresistancetorootdiseases,whichhadbeenpreviouslythoughtunattainable.1

Roots of plant genotypes that areefficient in mobilizing surroundingexternal minerals are better able topenetrate mineral-deficient soils andsomakeuseofthemoistureandmin-eralsinthesoils.Thisreducestheneedforfertilizersandirrigation.Plantswithdeeperrootsystemsaremoredroughtresistant. Micronutrient-dense seedsare associated with greater seedlingvigor, which in turn, is associatedwith higher plant yield. The traits ofefficientuptakeoftracemineralsfromthesoil andof loadingof those traceminerals intotheseedarecompatiblewithbreedingforhighyields,andthesetraits can be incorporated into thebest-yieldingvarieties.1

Developing biofortified seeds con-taining higher levels of micronutri-ents can improve crop yields whenplanted in soils lacking inmicronu-

trients. Additionally, micronutrient-denseseedscansignificantly reduceseedingratesresultinginsubstantialsavings to farmers in seed costsalone (e.g., zinc-enriched wheatgrain can reduce seeding rates fromover 200 kg per hectare to 150 kgper hectare when planted in zinc-poorsoils).Furthermore,suchseedscould benefit livestock productionin regions with micronutrient-poorsoils. Using these enriched staples(e.g., maize) in livestock rationscouldlowerinputcoststofarmersinthese areas because they would nolonger have to rely on feed supple-mentstosupplythesenutrients.Forpoorfarmers,productivitybenefitsofusing enriched seeds for both cropsand livestock become an importantreasontousetheenrichedseedsirre-spectiveoftheireffectsonimprovinghumanhealth.2

Biofortification will have importantspin-off effects for increasing farmproductivity in developing countriesin an environmentally beneficialway. Farmers prefer mineral-packedseeds because these trace mineralshelp plants resist diseaseand otherenvironmental stresses. Moreover, ahigher proportion of seedlings sur-vive,initialgrowthismorerapid,andultimatelyyieldsarehigher.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

Biofortificationwillhave

importantspin-offeffectsforincreasingfarmproductivityindevelopingcountriesinanenvironmentallybeneficialway

“

ABS2 confined field trial in Puerto Rico, USA (Photo Credit: Pioneer)


Look

ing

Forw

ard

• PhaseTwo:Buildinguponsuccess

• AnInterviewWithDr.Zuo-YuZhao

• Developmentofmarketsandtheacceptancechallenge

• Futurefood,feedandindustrialutilizationofABS2

Scientists inspect seedlings at KARI

Phase Two: Building upon Success

The overall goal of the ABS projectPhaseIIistobuilduponthesuccessof Phase I and develop and deployhighly nutritious and digestible sor-ghumfirstto farmersandend-usersin Africa who rely on sorghum astheirstaplefood,andthenreachouttothe300millionpeopleinAfrica.

As the ABS Continuum diagram(below)shows,PhaseIIoftheprojectwill focus on developing sorghumseedvarietiesthatwillaidfarmerstoproduce grain containing increasedlevels of essential amino acids,especially lysine, increased levels ofVitamins A andmore available ironandzinc.FarmerhouseholdswillbeeducatedontheuseofhealthierfoodproductsderivedfromABSgrainwhiletheprojecthelpsdevelopenterprise-drivenconsumerproductstoprovideadditionalincomesforsmallandme-diumAfricanenterprises.Theproject

will especially benefit populationsthat are vulnerable tomicronutrientdeficiencies.

ThisphasewillbemanagedbyanewConsortium in consultation withdonors and stakeholders. An initialmeetingwasheldinAugust2010inNairobi,Kenya.Atthesametime,aConcept Note was being developedforsubmissiontoappropriateinves-tors. Funds saved from Phase I arebeingusedtokickstartPhaseIIandtocontinuewithsomeoftheactivi-tiesstartedinPhaseI.AfricaHarvestcontinues to provide leadership forthisprojectwhilePioneerhasagreedto support technology developmentwhile new donors are identified.Equally,theBMGFhasindicatedwill-ingnesstoprovidesupporttoensuresmooth transition between the twophases.

PhaseIIwillespeciallybenefitpopulationsthatarevulnerabletomicronutrientdeficiencies

“


An Interview with Dr. Zuo-Yu Zhao

How it all started: With a Ph.D.degree in Biology from Illinois StateUniversityinUSAandpost-doctoralresearch inMolecularBiologyat theColdSpringHarborLaboratory,“oneof the best biological labs in theworld”.

His career focus: Product develop-ment of genetic modified corn.Although he confesses that he hasa broad background and extensiveworkingexperience inplantbiology:“ ... plant breeding, plant geneticsand cytogenetics, plant molecularbiologyandplantbiotechnology”.

Pioneer’s technology contribu-tion to the ABS Project:Thebiggestcontributionistheinitialtechnologydonation. However the company’shands-on leadership in technology

SinceDrZhao’smajorresearchhasbeentechnologydevelopmentofmaizegenetictransformation,hewasinvolvedinsorghumresearchwaybeforetheABSProjectstarted

“

development of the project since itwas started five years ago, is oftennotfullyappreciated.Forexample,itwas Pioneer that contributed tech-nology and expertise that helped inareassuchasachievinghighthrough-put sorghumgenetic transformationusingAgrobacterium, improvementsinzincandironbioavailabilityaswellastheenhancementofpro-vitaminAbioavailabilityinsorghumgrain.

Other technology contributionsrelated to sorghum protein qual-ity improvement, GMO sorghumresearch in contained greenhouseand CFTs at multiple locations inUSA, gene stacking and GMO lead-ing event production and selection,sorghum breeding and transgenictrait integrationaswellasproviding

expertise inGMOproduct biosafetyandregulation.

The training of African scientistsin leadership and plant biotech,sorghum breeding, regulatory andgenetic marker system for traitintegration aswell as biosafety andregulatoryiswellacknowledged.

The precursor to the ABS Project was high-lysine sorghum technol-ogy. Why was this unique? Thehigh-lysineGMOsorghumprovidedauseful tool andworkingmodel sys-temforABSProjecttogetstartedinanumberofareasbeforeABSgener-ateditsownGMOsorghum.Withoutthehigh-lysinesorghum,theprojectwouldhavebeendelayedforatleastfor two to three years. The learningcurve, especially in biosafety and

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.


Page101

regulatory policy – using the high-lysine sorghum, has helped avoidmanydelays.

What has Pioneer learned?Pioneerprovided opportunities for Africanscientiststogettrainedinthemostadvanced biotechnology (strate-gies) ... in the past five years. Butas a learning company, we knowknowledgeflowsbothways.Pioneeremployees used this opportunity tolearn about how things operate inAfrica.Wenowhaveabetterunder-standingoftheurgentneedfornewtechnologiesinthecontinent.Apartfrommakingfriendsandestablishingsolidrelationshipandnetworkswiththe African scientific society andothercommunities,Pioneeremploy-eeshavealsolearnedaboutdifferentculturesandtraditions.

Thoughts on PABS: Pioneer hasmadeverysolidcommitmentonABSPhaseII.OurPresident,PaulSchikler,made a clear statement that wewouldcontinuetosupportandworktogetherwithAfricanpartnersontheABSProjectduringPhase II.Hesaidthecompanywillcontinuetoprovidein-kinddonationsforresearch,whiletheprojectputstogetherabouquetof funders. Dr. Marc Albertsen,the current PI of ABS Project, willcontinue to lead the project and allof theABS activities at Pioneerwillcontinue.

Roadmap for Phase II: The ABSProject has developed a uniqueroadmap, which will be the generalblueprintforleadingtheABSProjectinto the future. The uniqueness ofthis roadmap is that it isacompre-

hensiveworkingguidelinecombiningthe major functional areas for ABSproduct development and productdeployment.

What has been achieved so far:Sorghumisoneofthemostimportantcropsworldwide.However,comparedtocorn,soybean, riceandwheat, itis the crop with low nutrition andpoordigestibility.Ithashadtheleastinvestment as far as research andimprovementareconcerned.TheABSProjectisthereforeaground-breakingprojectinsorghumresearchandnu-tritionimprovement.

ABS research and sorghum’s commercial viability in Africa:Sorghum originated in Africa andpeople in Africa have relied on thiscropforalongtime.Itisalsocalledthe poor man’s crop. However,sorghumhassomeimportantcharac-teristicssuchasnaturaldrought-andheat-tolerance. Italsogrowswell inpoorsoils.Globalwarming,weatherchangesandespeciallywaterscarcitywillcatapultthiscroptothepositionof oneof themost important cropsin theworld. InAfrica, thevalueofsorghumasfoodandfeedaswellasindustrymaterialsinthefuturecouldcompletely change it from a poorman’scroptoahigh-valuecrop.TheABS Project has demonstrated andwill be continuously demonstrat-ing the advantages of nutritionalimprovement in sorghum and thenewopportunitiesthatthiscropwillprovideinthenewenvironment.

The above comments are Zhao’s person-al opinions and do not represent those of Pioneer or the ABS Pioneer Team.

TheABSProjecthasdemonstratedandwillbecontinuouslydemonstratingtheadvantagesofnutritionalimprovementinsorghumandthenewopportunitiesthatthiscropwillprovide

inthenewenvironment.

“


Development of markets and acceptance

Thismeans

thatcrop-andenvironment-specifictraitsrelevantto

adoptionhavetobeconsideredinthebreedingstrategyforbiofortified

cropsandend-productdefinition.

“Asuccessfulbiofortificationstrategyrequireswidespread adoption of thecrops by farmers and consumers,and this presents several importantchallenges.1 The farmers' criteria forchanging varieties include food andincomesecurity, risk factorsthatarebalanced against increased farm rev-enue through increased productionorimprovedproductionefficiencyandeconomicsasaconsequenceofadopt-ing a new technology. Added eco-nomic value from improved end-usequalityisalsolikelytobeessentialforadoption.Thismeansthatcrop-andenvironment-specific traits relevanttoadoptionhavetobeconsideredinthe breeding strategy for biofortifiedcropsandend-productdefinition.Forexample, seed zinc concentration inwheat is closely related with standestablishmentandfinalgrainyieldinzinc-deficientsoils.2

Twofactorsarecriticaltofarmeradop-tion:(i)whetherthetraitisvisible,and

(ii)infrastructuraldevelopment.Publicacceptanceisalsoessential,especiallyif the new trait perceptibly changesthequalitiesofthecrop,suchascolor,taste,anddrymattercontent.1Adop-tion of biofortified cropswith visibletraitswillrequirethatbothproducersandconsumersactivelyacceptthesen-sorychange inaddition toequivalentproductivity and end-use features.Crops with invisible traits, such ashigher concentrationsof ironor zinc,do not require behavior change perse because the augmented levelswillnot result in sensory changes. Thus,productivity and improved end-usefeaturessuchasflourqualityareveryimportant. In terms of infrastructuredevelopment, in Asia, for example,marketnetworksandinformationflowoperatereasonablyefficiently,andonceanew improvedvariety is released, itisrapidlyadopted,asevidencedintheGreen Revolution. In contrast, infra-structureinAfricaispoor.

US Senator Daschle (USA) and his entourage tour the KARI greenhouse containing ABS2 events


Page103

Researchshouldthereforeaddressfarmerconcerns,andaimtobreedvarietiesthatnotonlyhavehighermicronutrientlevels,butalsoare

moreresistancetodiseaseandadversegrowingconditions

“Consequently, significant assist-ance will be needed to determine,understand,andidentifytheactionsneeded to overcoming constraintsto farmeradoption.Thiswillincludetheuseoffarmerparticipatorybreed-ing methods to identify the locallyadapted biofortified genotypes thatbest suit producer–consumer needs,ensuring good access to plantingmaterialthroughthedevelopmentofseed systems and the developmentof markets for both the harvestedbiofortifiedcrop(s)andanyprocessedproducts made from them, such ascomplementary foods.2 Participatoryplant breeding, in which scientiststake farmers’ perspectives andpreferences into account during thebreedingprocess,willbemorecost-effective than confining breeding toresearchstations.8

Biofortifiedcropvarietiesmustperformas well as, or better than currentvarieties; otherwise farmers will notgrowthem.Researchshouldthereforeaddress farmer concerns, and aim tobreed varieties that not only havehighermicronutrientlevels,butalsoaremoreresistanttodiseaseandadversegrowingconditions.5Wherescientistscan combine highmicronutrient con-tentwithhigh yield, farmer adoptionand market success of nutritionallyimprovedvarieties isvirtuallyguaran-teed. In fact, research showing thathighlevelsofmineralsinseedsalsoaidplantnutritionhasfuelledexpectationsofincreasedproductivityinbiofortifiedstrains.8

Adequate informationprogramswillplayanessentialroleinensuringac-ceptance.Widedisseminationofthetechnology, a requisite for success,

alsoreliesongoodmarketnetworksand channels for the disseminationof agricultural information. The lackofagriculturalinfrastructureinsomedeveloping countries, especially inAfrica, is a significant challenge foradoption of new biofortified varie-ties.1 A common problem in manydevelopingcountriesisthelackofde-liverysystemstogetproductstothepoorestpeople.Thisconstraintmustbeovercomethroughtheseed-basedtechnologiesinherentinthebioforti-ficationapproach.Whenhouseholdsgrow micronutrient-rich crops, thedeliverysystemformicronutrientsisbuilt into the existing food produc-tion and marketing process. Littleinterventionorinvestmentisneededonce farmers adopt the new seed.Moreover, micronutrient-rich seedcan easily be saved and shared byeventhepooresthouseholds.8

Public acceptance baseline stud-ies must be conducted to identifyexisting informationgaps,thetargetgroups, existing and potential com-municationsystemsandtimelycom-mercialization.Throughthesurveys,the most effective communicationtools can be identified. These rangefromdirectpoliticalintervention,fo-cusgroups,seminarsandconferencesto media strategies involving web-basedstrategies,radio,televisionandtheprintmedia.Finally,endorsementfortheprojecthastobesoughtfrom

Site visits to sorghum fields were an integral part of ABS project management outreaches


Farmersaskme:“Willitrequireadifferentwayofcultivation?Willitbringmemoreincome?Howgoodwill

ittaste?”

“

national, regional and continentalfora. Such endorsement will speedup government acceptance andpre-emptpossibleanti-GMoppositiontotheproject.3

Amajoradvantageofbiofortificationisthatfarmerorconsumerbehaviordoesnothavetochange.Thecropsare already widely produced andconsumed by poor households inthe developing world.4 Of course,in rural Africa, as anywhere else,healthclaimsalonewillnot'sell'newvarieties to farmersandconsumers.Farmers ask me: “Will it require adifferentway of cultivation?Will itbring me more income? How goodwill it taste?”7 Both farmers andconsumers must accept the newvarietyasanimportantpartofwhattheyproduceandconsume,so thatitbecomesacosteffectiveinterven-tion.Thegreater the coverage ratesof biofortified crops, the higher themagnitude of impact. But this de-pendsbothonfarmers’andconsum-ers’acceptanceofbiofortifiedstaplesandtheavailabilityof infrastructurefordissemination.Clearly, thesearekeyparametersforimpact.6

End notes1. 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

3. www.biosorghum.org

4. Harnessing Agricultural Technology to Im-prove 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/

ABS2 events growing in a Pioneer greenhouse (Photo Credit: Pioneer)

A confined field trial of ABS2 events in Puerto Rico (Photo Credit: Pioneer)


Page105

Future food, feed and industrial utilization

Sorghum as a Food CropIn arid, less-developed regions ofthe world sorghum is an importantfood crop especially for subsistencefarmers. Immature sorghum grainsare sometimes roasted whole. Gritsmade fromsorghumarealsocookedlikericeinmanycountries.Sorghumboiled like rice is called kichuri inBangladesh, lehta wagen in Bot-swana,kaoliang mifaninChina,nifroinEthiopiaandoka baba inNigeria.A sorghum product similar to ricecalled sori has been developed inMali. In many West African coun-tries, sorghumandpearlmillet gritsaresteamedtoproduceacoarseanduniformly gelatinized product calledcouscous.Couscouscanbeconsumedfresh or can be dried; in its driedform it canbestored formore thansixmonths.Thedriedproductcanbereconstitutedinwater,milkorsauce.It is used as a convenience food intheSahel.3

Sorghumboiledlikericeiscalled‘kichuri’inBangladesh,‘lehtawagen’inBotswana,‘kaoliang

mifan’inChina,‘nifro’inEthiopiaand‘okababa’inNigeria

“

Porridgesarethemajorfoodsinsev-eralAfricancountries.Theyareeitherthick or thin in consistency. Theseporridgescarrydifferentlocalnames,like for instance thick porridges arecalleduguli(Kenya,UnitedRepublicof Tanzania, Uganda), to (BurkinaFaso, the Niger), tuwo (Nigeria),etc. Sorghum flour, sorghum malt,pigeonpeaandgroundnutaremixedin different proportions to improvethe nutritional value of traditionalporridges.3

In Uganda, a sour porridge calledbushera can be fermented into analcoholic drink. Fermented porridgeismade in several regions inAfrica.In theSudan, a thin fermentedpor-ridge called nasha is prepared withsorghum. Ogi, a popular fermentedporridgeinNigeria,ispreparedusingsorghum,milletandmaizeinvariousproportions.

Flatbreadsaremadebybakingdoughmadewithflourandwateronahot

Dr. Florence Wambugu (2nd from left) inspects a head of sorghum


panorgriddle.These flatbreadsareknownbymanylocalnames:rotiandchapatti in India, tuwo in parts ofNigeria, tortillas inCentralAmerica,etc. Injera (Ethiopia) and kisra (theSudan) are the major fermentedbreadsmadefromsorghumflour.Ger-minatedsorghumflour,called"powerflour" (kimea in theUnitedRepublicof Tanzania), reduces the viscosityoftheproductandmakesitsuitableforuseasaweaning food.Sorghumandmilletsareusedinweaningfoodsin countries like Ethiopia, India, theUnited Republic of Tanzania andUganda.3

Though beverages are not majorfoods,theyserveasasourceofenergyin several countries. Thin fermentedporridgesarecommonlypreparedandusedasadrink inAfricancountries.Theyareconsideredfoodsandprovideimportantnutrients.Traditionalbeer,amgba, andawine,affouk,preparedfrom sorghum in Cameroon werefoundtobenutritionallysuperiortosorghum flour. Traditional opaquebeer, forwhich sorghum andmilletsarevaluablerawmaterials,isapopu-lar beverage in several countries inAfrica. It iscalledchibuku inZimba-bwe, impeke inBurundi,dolo inMaliandBurkinaFasoandpitoinNigeria.3

In recent years, sorghum has beenused as a substitute for other grainin beer. In southern and eastern

Traditionalbeer,amgba,andawine,affouk,preparedfrom

sorghuminCameroonwerefoundtobenutritionallysuperiorto

sorghumflour

“Africa, sorghum is used to producebeer called “Eagle Lager”. In No-vember 2006, Lakefront Brewery ofMilwaukee, Wisconsin launched its"NewGrist"gluten-freebeer,brewedwithsorghumandrice.Itisoneofitsmostsuccessful lines. It isaimedatthose with celiac disease, althoughits low-carbohydrate content alsomakesitpopularwithhealth-mindeddrinkers. On December 20, 2006,Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis, Mis-souriannouncedthereleaseoftheirnew "Redbridge" beer. This beeris gluten-free and produced withsorghum as the main ingredient.Redbridgeisthefirstsorghum-basedbeer to be nationally distributed intheUnitedStates.2

A South African company produces“Morvite”, a pre-cooked sorghumwith added vitamins. It is a drypowdertowhichoneaddswaterormilk to make an instant porridge.

In Nigeria, a wide variety of non-alcoholicsorghummaltbeveragesareverypopular.Theseincludebothbot-tledmaltdrinkssuchas“Malta”,andmaltandcocoa-based,powder-baseddrinkssuchas“Milo”.11

Non-culinary uses of sorghumOncethesorghumgrainisharvested,stem and leaves of some varietieshave been used to make thatches,fences,baskets,brushesandbrooms.Often,thestalksareusedasfuel.Me-dievalIslamictextslistmedicalusesfortheplant.Theseedsandstalksarefedtocattleandpoultry. IntheUS,sorghumgrainisusedprimarilyasamaize substitute for livestock feedbecause their nutritional values areverysimilar.2

Sorghumstraw(stemfibers)canalsobemadeintoexcellentwallboardfor

Kenyan school children drink sorghum porridge


Page107

“Sorghumstraw(stemfibers)canalsobemadeintoexcellentwallboardforhousebuilding,aswellasbiodegradablepackaging.

housebuilding,aswellasbiodegrad-ablepackaging. Itdoesnotaccumu-late static electricity, so it is alsobeing used in packaging materialsfor sensitive electronic equipment.Currently,12%ofthegrainsorghumproduced intheUS isusedtomakeethanolbiofuel.AnAssociatedPressarticle claims that sorghum-sap-based ethanol has four times theenergy yield as corn-based ethanol,butisonparwithsugarcane.Thesapcouldbeusedtomakeethanolwhilethegrainisconsumedasfood.2

End notes1. Sorghum. Wikipedia. 2010. www.en.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum

2. Commercial sorghum. Wikipedia. 2010. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commer-cial_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 Cul-tivated Plants, Primarily as Food Sources. Department of Technology. Central Food Research Institute. Hungary

6. Cooking around the world. All about sor-ghum. 2010. www.theworldwidegour-met.com/products/articles/sorghum-culinary-file/

7. Ogbonna A C. 2007. Sorghum: An Environmentally-Friendly Food and In-dustrial Grain in Nigeria. Department of Food Science and Technology. University of Uyo. Nigeria

8. Small farmers optimistic about increasing earnings from outgrowers’ contracts Busi-ness Daily. 5 March 2010. www.business-dailyafrica.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 Acad-emy 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/Paper-01Taylor.pdf

12. Dicko M. 2006. ‘Sorghum Grain As Hu-man 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


AATF AfricanAgricultureTechnologyFoundationABS AfricaBiofortifiedSorghumAH AfricaHarvestAHBFI AfricaHarvestBiotechnologyFoundationInternationalARC AgriculturalResearchCouncilASARECA AssociationforStrengtheningAgriculturalResearchinEasternandCentralAfricaBC+ BioCassavaplusBecA BiosciencesEastandCentralAfricaBMGF BillandMelindaGatesFoundationBRN Bio-safetyResourceNetworkC&IM CommunicationandIssuesManagementCFT ConfinedfieldtrialCO2 CarbondioxideCo-PI Co-principalinvestigatorCORAF/WECARD WestandCentralAfricanCouncilforAgriculturalResearchandDevelopmentCSIR CouncilforScientificandIndustrialResearchDALY Disability-adjustedlifeyearEAB ExternaladvisoryboardEC EuropeanCommunityEPAR EvansSchoolPolicyAnalysisandResearchGroupFAO FoodandAgricultureOrganizationFARA ForumforAgriculturalResearchinAfricaFTO FreedomtooperateGC GrandChallengeGCGH GrandChallengesforGlobalHealthGCI GrainCropsInstituteGM Geneticallymodified/geneticmodificationGMO GeneticallymodifiedorganismGURT GeneticUserRestrictionTechnologyHIA HighimpactareaHIV-AIDS HumanImmuno-DeficiencyVirusandAcquiredImmuno-DeficiencySyndromeIAR InstituteofAgriculturalResearchIBC InstitutionalBiosafetyCommitteeICRISAT InternationalCropsResearchInstitutefortheSemi-AridTropicsIFAD InternationalFundforAgriculturalDevelopmentINERA Institutdel’EnvironnementetdeRecherchesAgricolesINTSORMILCRSP InternationalSorghumandMilletCollaborativeResearchSupportProgrammeIP IntellectualpropertyIPMG IntellectualPropertyManagementGroupKARI KenyaAgriculturalResearchInstituteKEPHIS KenyaPlantHealthInspectorateServicekg kilogramMAB Marker-assisted-breeding

Acronyms and abbreviations

Page109

MAS Marker-assistedselectionMDG MillenniumdevelopmentgoalNABDA NationalBiotechnologyDevelopmentAgencyNARI NationalAgriculturalResearchInstituteNARS NationalagriculturalresearchsystemNBC NationalBiosafetyCommitteeNCD Non-communicablediseasesNCCT NigeriaCountryCommunicationTeamNEMA NationalEnvironmentManagementAuthorityNEPAD NewPartnershipforAfrica’sDevelopmentPAC PublicAcceptanceandCommunicationPC ProjectcoordinatorPDCAAS ProteindigestibilitycorrectedaminoacidscorePDG ProductdevelopmentgroupPI PrincipalinvestigatorPSC ProjectSteeringCommitteeR&D ResearchandDevelopmentRDA RecommendeddietaryallowanceRFP RequestforproposalsRNI RecommendednutrientintakeSLU SwedishUniversityofAgriculturalSciencesTC TissueCultureTDG TechnologydevelopmentgroupTLMG TeamleadersmanagementgroupUCB UniversityofCaliforniaBerkeleyUP UniversityofPretoriaUSA UnitedStatesofAmericaUSAID UnitedStatesAgencyforInternationalDevelopmentUSDA UnitedStatesDepartmentofAgricultureVAD VitaminAdeficiencyWHO WorldHealthOrganisationµg microgram


Above: Sorghum farmers celebrate life, and below, delegates celebrate the end of ABS Phase 1.

the biosorghum 5 year report

Documents

abs consortium abs

abs consortium approach

project management

african project

africa harvestisbn

africa harvest vision

impact of biofortification

sorghum research