Scientists from a leading global grain research institute expect to rapidly sharpen new wheat varieties enriched with zinc, which could promote the essential mineral for millions of poor people with a lack of diet, the institute’s head told Reuters.
Martin Kropff, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), said he expects the newly developed high-zinc wheat to make up at least 80% of the varieties that will be distributed worldwide over the next ten years, compared to about 9% tans.
The Mexico – based institute’s research focuses on boosting the yields and livelihoods of the poorest farmers in the world, while also addressing specific challenges facing climate change, including higher temperatures, less rainfall and the ongoing mutation. of plant diseases.
The improved varieties of so-called bio-fortified wheat are being rolled out using seed companies in countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico and Bolivia.
Kropff said the Asian giant China could also start adopting the fortified wheat varieties this year.
In the next decade, he said he expected to improve almost all newly used wheat varieties, noting that the high zinc varieties were developed using traditional breeding techniques instead of research based on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
“This is something that is really starting in a big way this year,” said Kropff, who also pointed to CIMMYT-developed zinc-reinforced maize introduced in Colombia over the past two years.
“I’m very proud of this,” he adds, citing the seeds’ ability to extract malnutrition through one of the world’s grain products.
The dramatic expansion of the new wheat varieties, which has not been reported before, holds the promise of improving diets that do not contain minerals, such as zinc and iron, which are used to ward off viruses and move oxygen through the body. .
Zinc deficiency in particular is one of the leading causes of malnutrition worldwide, affecting an estimated more than 2 billion people.
CIMMYT scientists, with a research budget of $ 120 million last year, developed about 70% of the wheat varieties currently planted worldwide, as well as about half of the world’s maize, or maize.
The vast majority of CIMMYT’s research is not GMO.
The institute was founded by Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug and conducts research projects in about 50 countries. It has attracted funding from, among others, the US and British governments, as well as billionaires such as Bill Gates and Carlos Slim.
‘FIRST OF ITS KIND’ CORN
Kropff also cited three recently developed CIMMYT wheat varieties that are resistant to Fall Armyworm (FAW), an insect that caused extensive damage to crops in Africa and Asia, which was bred in Kenya with the help of CIMMYT’s maize seed bank in Mexico. , the world’s largest.
“Like humans, the worms also like corn, but they eat the leaves and also the grains, and that’s really awful,” Kropff said.
CIMMYT officials say the new varieties will be distributed over the next few months for performance trials in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Kropff, a 64-year-old Dutch scientist, said the FAW-resistant wheat varieties are the first of their kind and have already been selected for trials in East African countries ahead of similar routes expected in South Africa later this year.
He said that CIMMYT, which in a typical year develops about 35 improved wheat varieties worldwide, fills in a space that the largest profit-maximizing seed companies such as Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) in Germany or Corteva Inc (CTVA.N) in the US tends to avoid.
“We breed varieties specifically for the environments where the private sector cannot make much money,” he said, explaining that the poorest farmers also regularly have to adopt new varieties that can thrive in a world where pests and diseases are also constantly evolving.
“The small farmers trust us.”
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