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afrol.com, 12 October - A lifetime's work to develop a higher-yielding, protein-rich maize that can help prevent malnutrition in millions of people has earned two scientists, a Mexican biochemist and an Indian plant geneticist, the Millennium World Food Prize. The breed has already proven its success on African locations. Dr. Evangelina Villegas, 76, and Dr. Surinder K. Vasal, 62, today will receive the prestigious US$ 250.000 prize at ceremonies October 12 in Des Moines, Iowa. Both scientists belong to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico, known by its Spanish acronym CIMMYT. It is one of 16 research centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Dr. Villegas is the first woman ever to receive the World Food Prize. Thirty-five years in the making, the new corn, known as quality protein maize (QPM), looks and tastes like normal maize, with one vital difference: it contains twice the amount of lysine and tryptophan, amino acids essential for human health and nutrition. QPM's nutritive value approaches that of protein from skim milk. "QPM is helping to make a real difference in the lives of millions of people that are living on the edge of survival," says Ian Johnson, CGIAR chairman and World Bank vice president. "It is an example of people-centered science at its very best."
QPM came about through painstaking research, scientific sleuthing, and the ability to pursue 'hunches' against the odds. Conventional plant breeding is a time consuming activity, especially in the QPM effort. New plants, with desirable traits such as increased yields, disease resistance, and enhanced nutrition, cannot be rushed. Trial and error is the norm, as is persistence. The QPM story began in the early 1960s when researchers at Purdue University, Indiana discovered a geneopaque-2, that conferred increased lysine and tryptophan content in corn kernels. But this modified corn suffered from a high 'yield penalty' (i.e., yields were between 10 to 15 percent less compared to normal maize), had increased susceptibility to pests and diseases, and more importantly, had a soft chalky-looking grain that did not meet consumer acceptance. By the mid-1970s, a team of CIMMYT researchers led by Ernest Sprague, former director of the maize research program was able to use modifying genes to offset the drawbacks of opaque-2 corn. Vasal focused his efforts in the field, and Villegas concentrated her efforts in the laboratory to generate 'grain quality assays' or precise nutritional profiles of the new plants. In 1973, a chance event confirmed that the breeding strategy was working: the harvest included a very high frequency of modified corn ears that did not exhibit any of the undesirable traits associated with opaque-2 corn. The kernels had the right weight, luster, and thanks to precise nutritional profiles, the plants were well suited for building seed stock to enable international field trials. And later that decade, the name "Quality Protein Maize" was coined. Says Vasal, "The work was difficult and time consuming. We had to develop very large quantities of germplasm and concurrently develop our capacity to do rapid grain assays. We are scientists, not detectives. When we started out, we never anticipated that it would take 30 years to achieve this breakthrough. We just believed that a combination of plant breeding, quality biochemistry, patience and persistence could yield a new plant that would help wipe out malnutrition and hunger." By the 1980s, a huge volume of QPM seed material was being generated and used extensively in international trials. Significantly, public policymakers began to see QPM as a source of inexpensive, accessible high quality protein for the poor. In the mid-1990s, QPM was tested at multiple research stations all over the world with positive results. This involved testing between 600-1.000 hybrid varieties of maize a year, a phenomenal research effort. Today, a bumper crop of QPM maize is expected from around one million hectares (2,5 million acres) currently under cultivation in 11 countries. Data from 32 locations across Africa, Asia, and Latin America show the QPM hybrid is outperforming current commercially produced hybrids by an average of 10 percent. QPM is transforming agriculture in some of the poorest parts of the world such as China, Mexico, and Peru. As Vasal and Villegas receive the World Food Prize at the Iowa State Capitol Building (US) today, October 12, they will join a select group of six other scientists associated with the CGIAR and have received the World Food Prize: Henry M. Beachell (1996), Robert F. Chandler (1988), Hans Herren (1995), Gurdev S. Khush (1996), John Niederhauser (1990) and M. S. Swaminathan (1987). The CGIAR is the world's largest agricultural research network, with more than 10.000 scientists and scientific support staff in more than 100 countries. The results of all CGIAR research are global public goods, available free to everyone. The 58 CGIAR members include industrial and developing countries, private foundations, and regional and international organizations. The World Bank, the UN Development Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) serve as cosponsors. The research effort on QPM has benefited from the generous support of Sasakawa Global 2000, The Nippon Foundation, and UNDP. Source: World Bank
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