Where the Plus Comes From

Cooperation from Brazil pays off for HarvestPlus in poor Brazilian farm communities, across Latin America and around the world.

The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa by its Portuguese acronym), a HarvestPlus partner, launched in June a new cassava variety called Jari in the semi-arid northeastern region of Brazil. Unlike traditional cassava varieties, Jari turns a rich golden color when cooked, advertizing its higher content of beta-carotene, or provitamin A. Since cassava is a staple food for poor people in Brazil, Embrapa scientists bred Jari using conventional techniques to provide low-income Brazilians, especially women and children, with much-needed vitamin A. Embrapa has shared the cassava germplasm with two HarvestPlus partners, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT by its Spanish acronym) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, which are breeding high-provitamin A cassava for other parts of the world.

Cooked Jari, a cassava variety released by Embrapa, has higher provitamin A content than native varieties. Photo: Embrapa.

The beta-carotene content of most cassava varieties is essentially zero. In contrast, Jari has 9 micrograms of beta-carotene per gram. Scientists hope to reach their breeding target of approximately 15 micrograms per gram within a few years. HarvestPlus nutritionists believe biofortified cassava that reaches this target can have a measurable nutritional impact on people’s vitamin A status and public health. In the meantime, launching micronutrient-rich crops in early development — especially those that, like Jari, look or taste different — paves the way for the later release and acceptance of varieties that have the target content of micronutrients.

The success of Jari results from  an enduring partnership between HarvestPlus and Embrapa that began in 2002, when Embrapa President Alberto Duque Portugal asked Marília Nutti, then head of Embrapa Food Technology in Rio de Janeiro, to attend a meeting in Washington, DC, to discuss the proposed Biofortification Challenge Program, which was officially launched in 2003 as HarvestPlus. Under Nutti’s leadership, Embrapa Food Technology was charged with implementing a biofortification program in Brazil. By 2005, much of Embrapa’s biofortification research was under way.

Embrapa’s initial mandate was to biofortify cassava, but it has since expanded to include other crops in the HarvestPlus portfolio (maize, wheat, beans, rice and sweetpotato) as well as those important in many Latin American countries, such as pumpkin and cowpea.

“Since the beginning we endeavored to work on all crops together, as Brazilians do not eat just one or two staples,” explains Nutti. “We expect that both farmers and consumers will adopt and eat more than one biofortified crop.”

In only a few years, Embrapa has released, in addition to high provitamin A cassava, high-iron and high-zinc varieties of common bean, rice and cow pea. Six high-provitamin A sweet potato varieties developed in collaboration with the International Potato Center are being tested in different growing environments of Brazil.

“We are also working with the private sector to develop processed products, such as bread, noodles and snacks made with biofortified cassava or sweetpotato flour in a way that retains the nutrients,” Nutti adds.

Occupying almost half the area of South America and ranking fifth in world population, Brazil has enormous potential to promote biofortification in the region. Embrapa coordinates the Brazilian national agricultural research system, which includes most public and private entities involved in agricultural research in the country. It has 38 research centers in almost all the states of Brazil and coordinates more than 2,000 researchers, almost three quarters of whom have doctoral degrees.

Embrapa’s reach extends well beyond Latin America. In 2005, Nutti and other staff members visited laboratories in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda to provide training in crop carotenoid analysis. Subsequently, they visited and audited laboratories in China, India, Mozambique and Syria. In April of this year, they explored the feasibility of implementing cassava carotenoid analysis training and capacity building in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Between 2003 and 2008, HarvestPlus provided US$1 million to Embrapa, which accounted for about 20% of Embrapa’s total funding for biofortification.

“Working with Embrapa has been a success story, no matter how you look at it,” says HarvestPlus Director Howarth Bouis. “Their researchers have increased micronutrient content in several staple food crops, which benefits our breeding programs around the world. Not only do they collaborate with AgroSalud, a CIAT program that promotes biofortification in Latin America, but the technical training and capacity building they’ve provided to our African partners will greatly improve capacity to develop high-provitamin A crops in Africa. This is exactly the kind of global payoff we envisioned for our investments in country research programs.”