Malnutrition affects 40% of children in Africa. Part of the issue is that the staple crops in the formal food system lack the nutrients needed to properly feed a person. Traditional foods like amaranth, okra and breadfruit are incredibly healthy, but these have never been grown in agriculture systems and their seeds never bred for qualities like yield or higher nutrient content. To integrate these healthier crops into the agricultural system in Africa, a collaboration of partners from agricultural research organizations to Google are turning to genome sequencing to improve these traditional crops and bring them into the agricultural mainstream. The joint effort is known as the African Orphan Crops Consortium, and it seeks to sequence 101 crops to make them more nutritious, boost their yield and make them more drought-tolerant, ultimately increasing access to nutritious foods throughout Africa. Click here to read how this ambitious genome sequencing project has the potential to completely change food in Africa.
An ambitious genome sequencing project is tackling Africa’s nutrition crisis
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