Nairobi, Kenya
December 11, 2007
The nine-member consortium of
the Africa Biofortified
Sorghum (ABS) Project today announced that its second
generation of transgenic sorghum seeds - known as ABS#2 - had
exhibited significantly increased levels of nutritional
improvements over previous generations.
The project is seeking to develop a more nutritious and easily
digestible sorghum that contains increased levels of essential
amino acids, especially lysine, increased levels of Vitamins A
and E, and more available iron and zinc.
Dr. Paul Anderson, the Project’s Principal Investigator, said
the breakthrough in the second generation seeds follows positive
developments in its biotechnology research. “A lot of sorghum
transformation work has been carried out since the project
started. Genes for three of the four intended nutrition
improvement traits - protein quality, protein digestibility, and
mineral availability - were transferred to sorghum, and they all
seem to work as expected. This is great success within a very
short period of time.”
“The increase in targeted nutrients shows that the ambitious
goals of the initial project are technologically feasible. This
lays the foundation for the next challenge, which is to
incorporate these technology breakthroughs in
nutritionally-improved varieties for African farmers and
consumers by careful field evaluation and the use of modern
breeding methods,” Dr. Anderson said.
This second generation seeds are the result of work jointly
carried out by African scientists from South Africa’s Council
for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Kenya
Agricultural Institute (KARI) and US scientists from DuPont
business Pioneer Hi-Bred.
The project also announced that it has received a field permit
for field evaluation of this second generation seeds; this will
commence in the US in January 2008. The consortium said it would
also seek permits for contained evaluation of these seeds in
African countries that had indicated interest in this project.
The project is supported by the Grand Challenges in Global
Health initiative, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, the US Foundation for the National Institutes of
Health, the Welcome Trust and the Canadian Institutes of Health
Research.
With the goal of improving nutrition to promote health, the ABS
project focuses on improving the nutrition of sorghum. The
Project brings together seven African and two US organizations.
The nine-member consortium is led by
Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation
International.
For more information on the ABS Project, visit
www.supersorghum.org
BACKGROUNDER
The Africa Biofortified Sorghum
(ABS) Project
Summary of Africa’s food security challenge
• Over 50 million people are affected due to hunger and
starvation
• Africa is today the largest recipient of food aid
• In Kenya about 3 million people face food shortage
• Nutritionally Africa has 30% of the world’s undernourished
• Sub-Saharan African agricultural production growth rate is 2%
while population growth rate is about 3%,clearly showing that
agriculture lags behind population growth
• Serious food deficit and chronic hunger are compounded by a)
increased use of corn for bio-fuel in food donor countries and
b) climate change
The Grand Challenges
The Grand Challenge projects are designed to “help apply
innovation in science and technology to the greatest health
problems of the developing world”
Out of the 14 Grand Challenges, GC#9 has the challenge of
“creating a full range of optimal, bio-available nutrients in a
single, staple plant species”. There are four GC#9 Projects:
• Cassava - Nutrition, Health, and Sustainable Development
• Banana - Optimized Bio-available Micronutrients
• Rice – High proVit A, Vit E, Enhanced Fe and Zn
Bioavailability
• Sorghum: Nutritionally-Enhanced Sorghum for the Arid and
Semi-Arid Tropical Areas of Africa
Why a consortium to tackle this challenge?
Grand challenges call for grand approaches to solve them. The
ABS Project consortium recognized that no single African
institution had the necessary human and infrastructural capacity
to successfully undertake a project of this magnitude. The
consortium approach brings together unique synergies for the
overall benefit of the project. The project is African-led,
focusing on an African grand challenge.
The project is structured into three broad functional areas:
Technology Development:
Pioneer, University of California Berkeley and South
Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR).
Product Development:
International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics
(ICRISAT), Africa Research Council (ARC) of South Africa ARC
and University of Pretoria
Enabling Environment & Product Distribution:
Africa Harvest, the African Agricultural Technology
Foundation (AATF) and the West and Central African Council
for Agricultural Research and Development (WECARD/CORAF)
What has been the project’s
contribution in African scientific capacity building?
The project has fellowships for African scientists to conduct
biotechnology work in Pioneer laboratories. We have also had
scientists from the US work closely with scientists in Africa.
The goal is to ensure tangible technology transfer. African
scientists from the CSIR and the Kenya Agricultural Research
Institute (KARI) have been trained and returned to continue with
the project in their home countries.
Why work on sorghum?
Sorghum is uniquely adapted to Africa’s semi arid to arid
climate, being drought-resistant. In terms of tonnage, it is
Africa’s second most important cereal.
Sorghum is also the:
• Fifth most important grain for food use
• Center of origin is Sudan and the surrounding areas.
• Primary cereal in arid and semi-arid geographies
• A staple food for 300 million people in Africa
• Mostly consumed as porridges
What nutritional shortfalls does sorghum have?
Sorghum has considerable variation in grain composition but is
generally a poorer source of nutrients than the other cereals.
Food preparation methods such as cooking result in poor protein
digestibility and protein quality.
Sorghum is low in lysine, tryptophan, threonine, and sulfur
amino acids. It is also low in iron and zinc availability. It
has like the other cereals low vitamin A and E levels.
What challenges - related to the GM technology – does the ABS
Project face?
The ABS Project is leveraging the best technology for sorghum
improvement. All genes used are from crop sources. The
approaches have been tested in corn or other cereals and the
efficacy demonstrated hence the higher success rate of the
project.
The second generation of transgenic sorghum seeds - known as
ABS#2 – has exhibited significantly increased levels of
nutritional improvements; what happens to previous generations?
Applications for growth of ABS#1 in glasshouses at South
Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
was submitted, revised, and later declined. The project is
waiting for the outcome of an appeal to the Ministry of
Agriculture, made by the permit applicant, the CSIR.
The delay in permit approval for ABS#1 has in no way affected
the timelines and milestones for the development of the second
generation product. The scientific breakthrough of the second
generation sorghum seeds means that the project can now work
with a better product that offers the potential of more
nutritional benefits.
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