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 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 varieties distributed
worldwide over the next ten years, up from about 9% currently.
The Mexico-based institute's research focuses on boosting yields,
and livelihoods, of the world's poorest farmers while also
addressing specific challenges posed by climate change, including
higher temperatures, less rainfall and constantly mutating plant
diseases.
The improved varieties of so-called biofortified wheat are being
rolled out with the help of seed company partners in countries
including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico and Bolivia.
Kropff said Asian giant China may also begin adopting the fortified
wheat varieties this year.
Over the next decade, he said he expects nearly all newly deployed
wheat varieties to be nutritionally improved, noting that the
high-zinc varieties were developed by 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-enhanced corn
that was introduced in Colombia over the past two years.
"I'm super proud of this," he added, touting the seeds ability to
dent malnutrition via one of the world's grains staples.
The dramatic expansion of the new wheat varieties, which has not
been previously reported, holds the promise of improving diets that
lack essential minerals like zinc and iron, used to fight off
viruses and move oxygen throughout the body.
Zinc deficiency, in particular, is one of the main causes of
malnutrition globally and estimated to afflict more than 2 billion
people.
CIMMYT scientists, with a research budget last year of $120 million,
have developed about 70% of wheat varieties currently planted
globally as well as about half of the world's corn, or maize,
varieties.
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 The vast majority of CIMMYT's
research is non-GMO.
The institute was founded by 1970 Nobel peace
prize winner Norman Borlaug and runs research
projects in some 50 countries. It has attracted
funding from the U.S. and British governments,
among others, as well as billionaires like Bill
Gates and Carlos Slim.
'FIRST OF ITS KIND' CORN
Kropff also cited three recently-developed
CIMMYT corn varieties that are resistant to Fall
Armyworm (FAW), an insect that has caused major
damage to crops in both Africa and Asia, that
were bred in Kenya with the help of CIMMYT's
maize seed bank in Mexico, the world's largest.
"Like people, (the worms) like maize as well, but they eat the
leaves and also the grains and it's really terrible," said Kropff.
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, according to
CIMMYT officials.
Kropff, a 64-year-old Dutch scientist, said the FAW-resistant corn
varieties are the first of their kind and have already been picked
for trials in east African nations ahead of similar trails expected
in southern Africa later in the year.
He said CIMMYT, which in a typical year develops and deploys some 35
improved wheat varieties globally, fills a space that the biggest
profit-maximizing seed companies like Germany's Bayer AG or
U.S.-based Corteva Inc tend to avoid.
"We specifically breed varieties for those environments where the
private sector cannot make much money," he said, explaining that the
poorest farmers must also regularly adopt new varieties that can
thrive in a world where pests and disease are constantly evolving
too.
"The small-holder farmers rely on us."
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
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