The African Orphan Crops Consortium has released the names of the 100 African crop species whose genomes it plans to sequence, assemble and annotate to improve nutrition of African families, especially children.
Orphan crops are African food crops and tree species that have been neglected by researchers and industry because they are not economically important on the global market.
The list of the 100 African species, which among others includes; African eggplant, amaranth, Guava, cassava, and potato, developed by African scientists and their colleagues elsewhere, is being availed so that researchers around the world can contact the consortium with suggestions for research needs regarding the selected species.
Dr. Allen Van Deynze, Director of Research at UC Davis' Seed Biotechnology Center in US and one of the scientists on the project said the consortium plans to sequence a reference genome and produce 100 lines for each of the crop listed.
The research will be conducted at its Nairobi-based African Plant Breeding Academy hosted at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), with improved planting materials offered to smallholder farmers throughout Africa.
Dr. Deynze said baobab, which can be used as a dried fruit powder for consumer products, will be the first orphan crop to be studied.
Baobab, called "the wonder tree" in Africa, is claimed to have antiviral properties and other health benefits, ten times the antioxidant level of oranges, twice the amount of calcium as spinach, three times the vitamin C of oranges and four times more potassium than bananas.
“The consortium’s goal is to use the latest scientific equipment and techniques to guide the development of more robust produce with higher nutritional content,” Dr. Deynze said.
Formed in 2010, the African Orphan Crops Consortium includes the African Union - New Partnership for Africa's Development (AU-NEPAD Agency); Mars Incorporated; World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF); Beijing Genomics Institute; Life Technologies Corporation; World Wildlife Fund; University of California, Davis (UC Davis); iPlant Collaborative; and Biosciences eastern and central Africa - International Livestock Research Institute (BecA - ILRI Hub).
Mars Inc has led a similar collaboration that sequenced, assembled and annotated the cocoa genome and made these data publically available on the Internet to all researchers in 2010.
According to the consortium more than 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa consume orphan crops, and thus boosting their main crop production and nutrition could help reduce hunger and malnutrition.
Data from the World Health Organisation, shows that under nutrition is directly or indirectly responsible for 3.5 million child death every year, and at least 35 per cent of the disease burden in under 5 year old children in Africa.
While the degree to which indirect determinants of death varies between countries, WHO says malnutrition is a critical risk factor in most countries, and nutrition and food security remains a fundamental challenge to child survival.
The consortium will also train 250 plant breeders and technicians in genomics and marker-assisted selection for crop improvement over a five-year period. END
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