Biofortification of Millets: A Way to Ensure Nutritional Security

*R.K. Anushree, Shailja Durgapal, Meenal and Latika Yadav*

### **Abstract**

Malnutrition poses significant socioeconomic challenges worldwide, with its most acute impact felt in developing and impoverished nations. This issue is exacerbated by the reliance on cereal-based diets, which often lack essential micronutrients, as the world's population continues to grow. Millets and whole grains emerge as promising solutions to this dilemma. Although millets have historically served as a primary energy source in regions like Asia, Africa, and other semi-arid tropical areas, their nutritional value has been underrated. Beyond their carbohydrate content, millets are rich sources of vitamins, minerals, and crucial amino acids. Biofortification, the practice of enhancing the nutrient content of staple crops, offers a cost-effective approach to address micronutrient deficiencies. Initiatives like Harvest Plus in India have introduced biofortified millets to combat widespread deficiency disorders. The global distribution of biofortified millets is supported by non-governmental organisations, the business sector, and government regulatory bodies. This book chapter delves into these critical efforts, emphasising their role in ensuring nutritional security and effectively tackling malnutrition on a global scale.

**Keywords:** malnutrition, nutritional security, harvest plus, biofortification, micronutrient deficiencies

### **1. Introduction**

Malnutrition has substantial socioeconomic repercussions everywhere, but is more prevalent in developing and underdeveloped countries. Malnutrition, which is caused by insufficient intake of a balanced diet, compromises health, increases vulnerability to numerous diseases, and causes a large loss in annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which can reach 11% in Asia and Africa [1]. Around 2 billion people around the world are undernourished, and 815 million are malnourished. Malnutrition has the greatest impact on children, who account for 151 million stunted children under the age of 5 and 51 million who do not weigh enough for their height (wasting) Malnutrition is linked to over 45% of fatalities in children under the age of five [2]. The issue is so pervasive that hunger in two or more forms affects 88% of the world's nations. Malnutrition is most prevalent in Southern Asia, where 33.3 and 15.3 percent of children (>5 years) are stunted and wasted, respectively, compared to the global averages of 22.2 and 7.5 percent [3].

The process of "biofortification" involves using standard plant breeding or agronomic techniques, like fertiliser administration, to increase the amount of micronutrients in food crops during plant growth [4]. It is an agricultural-nutrition strategy that addresses the most prevalent and avoidable global micronutrient gaps in populations that depend on staple food crops for sustenance and have little access to alternative sources of micronutrients, such as fortified foods, supplements, or more varied diets, and have physiological needs that differ from intake [5, 6].

Millets, which produce an average of 14.2 and 12.4 million tonnes annually and are consumed in resource-poor nations in Asia and Africa, make about 75% of the total calories consumed. About 80% of the world's millet production is produced in India, making it the top producer of millets [7]. The term "small seeded grasses" is often used to describe millets, which include pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.), finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn), foxtail millet (Setariaitalica (L.) Beauv), proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.), barnyard millet (Echinochloa (Panicum sumatrense) [8–11].

Pearl millet accounts for 95% of the production of the millets, The second-largest crop of millets, foxtail millet (*S. italica* (L.) P. Beauv) is grown for food in Asia's semiarid tropics and for forage in Europe, North America, Australia, and North Africa [12]. The sixth-largest crop now grown, finger millet is the main source of nutrition for rural inhabitants in southern India, East and Central Africa. A short-season crop called proso millet is grown in arid areas of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, and North America [13, 14]. Barnyard millet is the fastest growing among the millets with a harvesting period of 6 weeks [15]. It is mostly grown for food and fodder in India, China, Japan, and Korea. Native to South America's tropical and subtropical climates, kodo millet was domesticated in India. Before 3000 years [16, 17].

Because millets are rich in proteins, dietary fibres, iron, zinc, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin B, and vital amino acids, they are nutritionally superior to wheat and rice [18, 19]. Phytates, polyphenols, and tannins, however, are antinutrients that chelate multivalent cations including Fe2+, Zn2+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and K+ to lower the bioavailability of minerals [20–24]. Additionally, the digestibility of millet grains is impacted by high levels of protease and amylase inhibitors [25–27]. Millets are now considered to be an economic outcast on the global stage due to the domination of antinutritional elements. With the exception of Golden rice, biofortified crops have generally been generated through conventional breeding that takes use of the genetic diversity present in the environment (www.harvestplus.org). When compared to other cereal crops, millets have significantly higher genetic variability for important mineral elements including iron, zinc, and calcium [28]. Moreover, millets are drought tolerant crops [29], resistant to pests and diseases offering good insurance against crop failure in developing countries [30, 31]. Despite millets' higher quality, India has solely prioritised pearl millet as the preferred crop for iron biofortification. As a result, there is enormous potential to use the minor millets for biofortification. Millets can be biofortified using one of two methods: either increasing the nutrient accumulation in milled grains or lowering the antinutrients to boost the bioavailability of minerals. This book chapter will emphasise in-depth details on millets' biofortification.

#### **2. Methodology for the review of the literature**

PubMed, Google, and other databases are searched for relevant material. We conducted a search of all review papers using the keywords "Millets, Bio fortification, Nutritional Security." Additionally, the global scenario, efforts, critical evaluations, government reports, agency reports, and publicly available data were analysed. The necessary data was gathered, compiled, and analysed.
