Biofortified Cereals Have the PM’s Blessings. What About Consumer Preference?

In August, the Prime Minister dedicated 109 climate-resilient and biofortified varieties of crops, “making a major advancement in the nation’s agricultural sector,” the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) said in a press release. The varieties pertained to 34 fields and 27 horticultural crops.

This used to be a routine event till the prime minister fussed about them in October 2020. Since then, the ceremony has become an annual occurrence.

So far, 87 varieties and hybrids of 17 food crops with higher nutrition levels have been released, according to an ICAR document. Of these, 48 have enhanced levels of more than one nutrient.

While the prime minister has made biofortification newsworthy, have the headlines and column centimetres translated into higher demand for these crops from consumers, and preference from farmers?

To get an idea, one could look at breeder seed indents on the government’s Seednet India portal. These are placed every year by state governments or private seed company associations after aggregating the requests they receive. Breeder seeds are genetically pure and produced by or for the institution that bred them.

From these, foundation seeds are produced and from them certified seeds for farmers to sow. The multiplication ratio varies from crop to crop.

For open pollinating paddy varieties, as per the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University portal, the ratio is 1:80, so one kg of breeder seed results in 6,400 kg of certified seed. For rice hybrids, the ratio is 1:100. The ratio is the same for maize. For pearl millet or bajra it is 1:200 and for wheat 1: 20. These ratios were formulated in 1989. They are being revised.

The seed rate also varies. About 40 kg per hectare of seed needs to be sown for open pollinating paddy varieties, ie, those whose grain be saved for sowing the next season. For rice hybrids, whose seed has to be purchased year after year for high yields to be obtained, the rate is 12-15 kg per hectare. For wheat, it is 100 kg of seed per hectare. For maize, 18-20 kg, and for pearl millet, four to five kg a hectare.

Biofortification is well accepted by Indian wheat farmers. In the last Rabi or winter season, indents for biofortified wheat seed amounted to 5,111 quintals or 37 percent of the total.

Of the 147 seed varieties for which orders were placed, 34 were biofortified, and of them, four were developed at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research in Karnal, accounting for 64 percent of the indented biofortified seed. These four had output comparable to those of high-yielding varieties, in addition to higher than benchmark protein content in some, or high levels of zinc or iron.

In bajra or pearl millet, all the new releases are biofortified. Of 28 varieties and hybrids indented for sowing in this year’s monsoon (Kharif) season, 13 were biofortified. They accounted for 44 percent of the total pearl millet seed demand placed on government agencies. These comprised varieties and hybrids with iron up to 91 parts per million (ppm) and zinc up to 46 ppm.

In rice, of the breeder seed indents for this year’s monsoon sowing, less than one-half of one percent were for biofortified varieties. Rice consumers are finicky about texture, grain size, taste, starch content, stickiness, aroma, colour and cooking time. The agroecologies are also fragmented. Combining these traits with high yields and higher nutrition levels is a tough job.

High nutrition levels in food grains used to come with a yield penalty. By combining high-yielding varieties and those with high protein or micronutrient levels, the yield gap has narrowed. In pearl millet, it has been bridged.

A 2021 pearl millet hybrid of a German multinational meant for planting in summer has a grain yield of five tonnes. It also yields 8.4 tonnes of fodder. It has 53 ppm zinc and 36 ppm iron, while normal bajra has 30-35 ppm zinc and 40-45 ppm iron. A Tata group company’s hybrid has about the same yields with 65 ppm zinc and 43 ppm iron.

Biofortification is a way of raising the nutrition levels of cereals, pulses, oilseeds and fruits and vegetables through traditional or modern plant breeding techniques. Proteins, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and good fatty acids are some of the traits that are targeted for enhancement. Another objective is the suppression of anti-nutrients, like erucic acid in mustard that causes fat deposits in arteries or glucosinolates that render mustard oil cake less palatable for chicken and swine.

Wasting and stunting in children due to undernourishment, weak bones and anaemia are some of the health issues that are sought to be addressed through breeding for better nutrition. Apart from being natural, biofortified foods are an affordable and sustainable alternative to artificial fortification or medical supplementation.

Though biofortified varieties like the high protein HD 1941 wheat of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), or WH 147 of Haryana Agricultural University were developed in the 70s, breeding for higher nutrition began in earnest in 2015 with the launch of the ICAR’s consortium research platform on biofortification.

Globally, 2023 was the 20th anniversary of biofortification through HarvestPlus, a collaborative effort of international agricultural research institutions. Under its aegis, 443 biofortified crops have been released for cultivation in 41 countries.

Apart from collaborative research and scaling up for large-scale cultivation, HarvestPlus also does feeding trials and recommends daily consumption levels so that a person gets the minimum required quantity of a nutrient. The intention is not only to produce for sale but also for consumption by smallholder farmers and their families.

Breeding is a numbers game. By crossing the plants of interest, selecting promising ones from the progeny and crossing them with better combiners, it is possible to improve nutrition and yield over time.

Farmers will not grow high-nutrition cereals if there is a loss of yield, unless they are compensated. AK Singh, who was director of IARI till June, says he had made a presentation to NITI Aayog after the pandemic seeking higher support prices for high zinc pearl millet. He said a brand of tablets with 30 milligrams of zinc prescribed for COVID patients, cost Rs six or 20 per milligram of zinc.

So, pearl millet with 70 ppm (milligram) zinc, that is 30 milligrams more than the baseline of 40 ppm, should fetch Rs 600 more per quintal. With XRF (X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy) machines at the procurement centres, the government can buy cereals for distribution through ration shops or for special purposes as per their iron or zinc content, as much as mustard is bought as per oil content.

To begin with, biofortified grains thus procured can be supplied to schools and anganwadis for mid-day meals.

Private companies can also create consumer demand through marketing and advertising, just as they have created a niche for Madhya Pradesh’s sharbati atta made from wheat grown in the Sehore district. They can then enter into contract farming arrangements with farmers. Over a period of time with accelerated breeding, non-fortified varieties should be phased out.

Just because plants can store higher amounts of zinc, iron and other micronutrients in their grain does not mean they necessarily do so. Plants do not synthesise these micronutrients. They absorb them from the soil. If the soil is deficient, the grains will also be. Farmers will have to apply fertilisers that contain the micronutrients, which they will not, if not compensated.

(Vivian Fernandes is a senior journalist and runs a website called Smart Indian Agriculture. He tweets @VVNFernandes. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)