Ugandan plant breeders with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement are using genomic selection to increase micronutrients and decrease cooking time in common beans.
Pioneering an inclusive approach to priority setting in crop improvement
April 30, 2021
The processes for breeding programs to set priorities are variable. The most developed approaches focus on ex-ante evaluations and economic projections of impact. At the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement, we want to do more: How do we bake in a central focus on social impact youth employment, climate change resilience, nutrition, gender equality, amongst others that are inherently intertwined with any part of the food system?
The Innovation Lab, housed in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Global Development, is at the forefront of the global conversation about how breeding priorities fit alongside power, politics and long-term impact.
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Ugandan breeders use genomic selection to boost health and satisfy customers
In Uganda, 90% of a population of more than 44 million people relies on common beans as their primary source of protein. Ugandans depend heavily on beans for food security, with a higher annual consumption rate (40kg/capita) than anywhere else on earth. While beans are rich in protein, it is not reaching its potential to deliver micronutrients like zinc and iron. The human impacts are severe. In Uganda, 40% of pregnant women are anemic and 38% children under the age of 5 are stunted, over half of which are due to a deficiency in those two nutrients.
project worked with vulnerable fishing families to identify unique problems and develop specific solutions for improving community nutrition.
While researching poverty and food insecurity in Kenya, Andrew Wamukota of Pwani University was rather surprised by what he found. His data showed that the most vulnerable communities living along the Kenyan coast suffered from higher rates of malnutrition and nutrient deficiencies.
Photo by Katie G. Nelson
“You would expect that since they have closer access to the sea, they would be able to feed their families with fish they catch, but that wasn’t always the case,” Wamukota said.
That led Wamukota and his project co-lead, Lora Iannotti of Washington University in St. Louis, to SecureFish, a project of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish. The program aims to understand the underlying causes of poor nutrition within vulnerable Kenyan communities and to develop solutions that increase access to and consumption of sustainable f