India gets its first biofortified sorghum

(L-R) Smt Sunanda Shinde; Smt Ahilyabai Shinde; Dr Peter Carberry,Director General (Acting), ICRISAT; Sri Madan Rao Shinde; Prof AS Dhawan, Vice Chancellor, VNMKV; and Dr DP Waskar, Director of Research, VNMKV. Photo: PS Rao, ICRISAT

Moving towards better nutrition with crop improvement

Hyderabad, 5 July 2018 ― India’s first biofortified sorghum (jowar), with significantly higher iron and zinc than regular sorghum, was formally launched today. Developed by ICRISAT it was released for cultivation by Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth (VNMKV), Maharashtra. The improved variety ICSR 14001, released as ‘Parbhani Shakti’ by VNMKV, offers a cost-effective and sustainable solution to address micronutrient deficiency. An MoU was signed today between ICRISAT and VNMKV for large-scale seed production and dissemination.

Speaking at the program to celebrate the launch, Prof A S Dhawan, Vice Chancellor, VNMKV, said, “We are glad to partner in this important initiative that offers a solution to a major concern like high anemia rates among women and children in India. Extensive studies on Parbhani Shakti were carried out on our research fields and we are happy to partner in efforts that will have a bigger impact.”

Dr Peter Carberry, Director General (Acting), ICRISAT, said, “Our belief statement emphasizes that all people have a right to nutritious food. Biofortification is an important approach we take as it is cost-effective and sustainable. It addresses hidden hunger with no additional cost to its regular consumers and often sorghum is the cheapest cereal available in the market.”

Talking of the many advantages of the new variety, Dr Ashok Kumar, Principal Scientist, ICRISAT, said, “Parbhani Shakti developed through several years of work through conventional breeding has an average grain Iron concentration of 45 ppm and Zinc 32 ppm. This is considerably higher than varieties that are currently being cultivated in India (Approx 30 ppm Iron and 20 ppm Zinc). Besides, it has higher protein (11.9%) and low phytate content (4.14 mg/100 g) compared to 10% protein and 7.0 mg/100 g phytate content in most sorghum cultivars. Low-phytate means increased bioavailability of nutrients. We are very happy that this kind of breakthrough has been achieved in India.”

This improved sorghum variety was developed by ICRISAT under the HarvestPlus sorghum biofortification project and was tested as PVK 1009 in Maharashtra state and in All India Co-ordinated Sorghum Improvement Project (AICSIP) Trials. It was released as a rainy season variety (Kharif) but it can be grown in post-rainy (Rabi) and summer seasons. The yield levels are higher (>5.0 t ha-1) in post-rainy and summer seasons with irrigation. When grown in summer season, it can tolerate higher temperatures (41°C) at flowering and seed setting but the flowering may be delayed (80 days).

Farmers Smt Sunanda Shinde and Ahilyabai Shinde from Manoli village, Manvat TQ, Parbhani Dist, who were part of the participatory field trials, said, “We got a higher yield of 10-15% and it also has the preferred market traits. This makes it an attractive option and we are happy we are among the first farmers to use it.”