Conservation and Breeding of Underutilized Crops: An important Step to Alleviate Malnutrition, Food insecurity and Enhance Resilience of Livelihoods

Presented at 15th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of Ghana Institute of Horticulturist, CRI-

CSIR, FumesuaBy

Daniel Nyadanu,PhD

Other authors: Richard Akromah,PhD; Lawrence Misa Aboagye,PhD; Hans Adu Dapaah, PhD

•Introduction and Background•Materials and Methods•Results and Discussion•Conclusions and Recommendations

Outline of presentation

•Current changes in food habits in the rural and urban households have led to overdependence on few crops which are energy rich but nutrient poor

•Only 3 major species: rice, wheat and maize supply almost 50% of worldwide calory need.

•Together with potato, millet, sorghum, soybean,sugarcane and sugar beet, they supply 75% of the world’s energy needs (FAO, 2010).

Introduction and Background

• The lack of diversity in diets is linked to malnutrition caused by a deficiency of micronutrients

• A lack of micronutrients or “hidden hunger” leads to poor health consequences for millions of Africa (Saka and Msonthi 1994; Saka et al. 2007)

• For example, around 50 million African children are at risk of vitamin A deficiency, the continent’s third greatest public health problem after HIV/AIDS and Malaria (Black et al. 2008; Aguago and Baker 2005).

• 800 million people under nourished in Africa (FAO, 2012)

•Human population continue to increase ( More in less developed countries. Majority in Africa

•Increase demand for food

•How will Africa feed and ensure good health of its teeming population in the face of challenges of climate change, pests and diseases, poor soil and conversion of arable lands for other uses?

A sustainable management and use of wide food resources can be a

strategy to overcome food insecurity and poor health especially in

Africa

•Indigenous farmers in Africa grow and consume a lot of crops which are neglected by researchers and policy makers

•They are referred to as neglected and underutilized species ( NUS) or Orphan crops

•Many NUS crops are rich in minerals and micronutrients (Dansi et al., 2012; Nyadanu and Lowor, 2014; Padulosi et al., 2013)

NUS complement major staples in diets and are a fall-back option if staple crops are finished.

•NUS contain phyto-chemicals that are anti-cancer, anti-diabetes, reduces blood pressure, cures fever and anaemia etc.

•NUS are highly adapted to marginal, complex and difficult environments such as those of drought, flood and cold (Bhuwon et al., 2010).

According to Graziano da Silva (2012) if we lose these unique and irreplaceable resources, it would be more difficult to adapt to climate change

Indigenous crops are linked to our food culture. If we loose them, we loose our culture and identity and have nothing to offer the world in terms of dishes

Current trend of diets or food habits in rural and urban households in Ghana

Youth regard indigenous crops as backward and associated with poverty

Exotic leafy vegetables Indigenous leafy vegetable

Lettuce Cauliflower

Cabbage C. olitorius Amaranthus cluentus

Cocoyam S. macrocarpon Baobab leaf

Proximate analysis

Energy 15 Kcal 25Kcal 25Kcal 56.78Kcal 49.89 Kcal 38.48 Kcal

58.44 Kcal 28.59 Kcal

Carbohydrates

2.79 g 4.97g 5.8g 19.56 g 12.13 g 15.63 g 15.21 Kcal 13.63 g

Protein 1.36 g 1.92g 1.3g 5.42 g 9.41 g 11.61 g 8.71 g 7.86 g

Total fat 0.15 g 0.28g 0.1g 0.43 g 0.35 g 0.71 g 0.23 g 0.53 g

Dietary fiber

1.3 g 2.0g 2.5g 1.61 g 1.78 g 3.34 g 2.81 g 4.33 g

Minerals

Calcium 36 mg 22 mg 40mg 276.4mg 252.1 mg 196 mg 252.29 mg 281mg

Copper 0.029mg 0.039mg - 2.52 mg 3.47 mg 1.45 mg 1.84 mg 0.89 mg

Iron 0.86 mg 0.42mg 0.47 mg 19.53 mg 45.41 mg 15.92 mg 22. 34 mg 20.11 mg

Magnesium 13 mg 15mg 12 mg 476.69 mg 343.14 mg 226.13 mg 355.62 mg 287.73 mg

Manganese 0.250 mg 0.155mg 0.160 mg 5.95 mg 6.24 mg 4.31 mg 5.68 mg 4.66 mg

Phosphorus 29 mg - 26 mg 66.68 mg 81.55 mg 79.22 mg 62.79 mg 74.91 mg

Zinc 0.18 mg 0.27mg 0.18 mg 4.71 mg 5.22 mg 7.63 mg 3.21 mg 4.33 mg

Potassium 194 mg 299mg 170 mg 481.15 mg 348.18 mg 285.66 mg 326.54 mg 272.35 mg

Table 1. Proximate and nutrient composition of exotic and indigenous leafy vegetables

Source: Nyadanu and Lowor, 2014 in Genetic Res and Crop Evol in Vol 61 (6)

Problem StatementEven though underutilized species are important, many of their genetic resources have not been collected and little is done on their genetic improvement. Farmers continue to grow low yielding and pests and disease susceptible varieties with other unwanted traits such as prolonged cooking hours and difficulty with processing.

An experimental field of taro at CRI – CSIR Fumesua infected with Phytophthora blight

OBJECTIVESThe objective of this study is to collect, characterize and develop improved varieties of under-utilized crop species

In this presentation I would present work on only Corchorus (ayoyo) and and gboma eggplant (Solanum macrocarpon L.)

Collection of Germplasm of Underutilized crops

Trips were made to growing centers to collect the germplasm

Materials and Methods

Materials collected were evaluated and characterized using morphological descriptors

Data was analyzed using ANOVA and Cluster Analysis with the GenStat statistical package

version 12

Results and Discussion

Genetic Resource Number of Accessions

1.Corchorus olitorius 122

2. Gboma eggplant 32

3. Amaranthus 22

4. Fonio 10

5.Frafra potato 15

6. Kenaf 8

7.Taro 34

Table 1. Germplasm of underutilized crops collected at KNUST

Germplasm collected

4341

40

39

38

37

36

35

34

33

32

31

30

29

28

27

26

25

24

23

22

21

20

19

18

17

49

16

4715

45

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

48

44

1.0

46

0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6

42

50

0.5

Euclidean D istance

Figure 1. Diversity among accessions of Corchorus olitorius

Plate 1. Photographs of diversity among accessions of Corchorus

Cagric17

Cagric44Cagric18

C agric45

Cagric20Cagric46

Cagric22

Cagric47

Cagric24

Cagric48

Cagric26 Cagric49Cagric28

Cagric50

Cagric30

Cagric51Cagric32

Cagric16

Cagric33Cagric34

Cagric36

Cagric1

Cagric38

Cagric2

Cagric40

Cagric3

C agric 42

Cagric4Cagric19

Cagric5Cagric23

Cagric6Cagric27

Cagric7

C agric31C agric8

Cagric37

Cagric9Cagric41

Cagric10

Cagric21

Cagric11

Cagric29

Cagric12

Cagric39

Cagric25

Cagric35

Cagric43

Cagric13Cagric14

Cagric15

dtf

fg

fl

flw

lc

ll

lwnbpp

nfpp

nlpp

nsppod

ph

st

4

-4

0

2

-2

4

0

6

-4

8

-8 2-6 -2

Second com

ponent First com ponent

Figure 2. Biplot showing the clustering pattern and association of accessions with traits

0.88

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

14

12

10

13

1.00

9

0.98 0.96

11

0.94 0.92 0.90

15

Figure 3. Diversity among accessions of gboma eggplant

A B

Plate 6. Diversity in lobbing of corolla. A (the corolla is strongly lobbed) B( the corolla is weakly lobbed).

A B

Plate 3. Diversity in fruit position. A ( erect) B( pendant)

AB

Plate 8. Variation in colour of riped fruits. A ( fruits yellow in colour) B( fruits brown in colour)

9

1

8

714

6

12 5

10 13

11

15

4

3

2

Anthocyanin_colouration

Fruit_econom ic_yield

Harvest_index_of_fruit

Harvest_index_of_leaf

L_W _of_thorn

Leaf_blade_lobeness

Leaf_econom ic_yield

Leaf_tenderness

No_of_thorns

Size_of_fruit

Size_of_leaf

Stem _branching

W eight_of_fruit

crack_surface

4

-6

-4

6

-2

2

0

-2-4

2

4

0

Second com

ponent First com ponent

Figure 4. Biplot showing clustering pattern and association of accessions with traits

•Much diversity exist in genetic resources of Corchorus and gboma eggplant in Ghana

•It is important to conserve genetic resources and breed improved varieties of underutilized crops in order to realize their promise of reducing hunger, malnutrition and ill health in Africa.

•Promising genotypes identified in this project could form base populations for such breeding programmes

Conclusions and Recommendations

Thank you