Biofortified pulse crops may be closer to reality than many producers realize.
Commodity groups are increasingly exploring how they can use genetics to improve the nutritional quality of crops, expand demand and create price premiums.
For instance, the corn industry is developing biofortified lines containing high levels of essential nutrients such as iron that could help address rampant malnutrition that exists in many impoverished countries.
But Raymond Glahn, research physiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, said studies of 20 commercial lines of Saskatchewan lentils grown in six locations indicate some of those lines are already high in iron concentration and could be fast-tracked to the marketplace as biofortified crops.
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That gives them a significant advantage over other crops because they don’t have to go through the lengthy variety development process, he told growers attending the Pulse Days portion of Crop Production Week in Saskatoon.
“We have evidence that biofortified lentils may already be in the harvest and at your processing centres,” he said.
Malnutrition causes 30 million deaths annually, or about one every second.
Eating crops that are high in available iron would help address the leading nutritional deficiency that affects one-third of the world’s population.
Tests show that Milestone and Redberry lentils contain 55 to 95 parts per million of available iron, compared to one ppm for polished rice, 13 ppm for milled wheat and 30 ppm for yellow corn.
Glahn has confirmed that feeding the Saskatchewan lentils to poultry results in higher iron levels as measured by their hemoglobin.
“This is important,” he said. “It says that just increasing the iron level in lentils gives us nutritional impact. That’s a very simple way to make a better food product.”
Researchers at Cornell University will soon test lentils to see if they boost iron levels in humans.
Bert Vandenberg, a plant breeder at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre, is using genomics research to identify the genes responsible for high nutrient levels in pulses to ensure future lines are biofortified.
The breeding program is focusing on five top nutrients: iron, zinc, selenium, folates and pro-vitamin A carotenoids.
Vandenberg hopes biofortified lines will help expand global demand for pulses, which have “fallen off the plate” around the world.
Cereal consumption rose 112 percent between 1969 and 2009 and oilseeds increased 357 percent. By comparison, pulse consumption rose 47 percent.
“The world has forgotten how to eat,” said Vandenberg.
Glahn said that’s a shame because pulses are richer in nutrients than cereals and oilseeds. He blames their demise on the green revolution of the 1960s that significantly increased the global acreage and average yield of cereal crops.
Vandenberg said pulses are a perfect fit for biofortification because they are a staple food ingredient in South Asia, where malnutrition is most prevalent.
A grower attending the Pulse Days meeting asked the researchers if they foresee farmers one day receiving iron content premiums similar to what they get for producing high protein wheat.
“It is feasible,” said Vandenberg. Exporters might be able to find a buyer who would pay more for a red lentil shipment containing 20 ppm higher levels of iron than an average shipment.
The challenge will be in segregation and delivery.
Vandenberg said marketing lentils, peas and chickpeas with boosted nutrient levels will expand global pulse demand and help the pulse industry meet its goal of accounting for 20 to 25 percent of Saskatchewan’s annual crop area.
