Nearly half of the world_s population suffers from micronutrient malnutrition. Biofortification of staple food grains is a viable approach that complements fortification and supplementation strategies where balanced, healthy diets are unlikely to be accessible and solve malnutrition problems in the near future. CIMMYT, HarvestPlus, and several global partners conduct research programs to develop and disseminate maize varieties biofortified with provitamins A, lysine, or tryptophan. Recent research findings have made possible the use of marker assisted selection for favorable alleles of important genes in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, which is expected to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of future breeding work to increase provitamins A. Successful quality protein maize (QPM) cultivars have already been developed and released in many countries, and recently convincing evidence been published documenting the nutritional benefit to children of consuming QPM. This paper outlines current strategy and recent progress in developing biofortified maize at CIMMYT, which is paralleled at several partner institutions.

Genetic Resources Program|Global Maize Program

Text in English

INT2691|INT1617|INT2925