Viewpoint: Agri-nutrition research: Revisiting the contribution of maize and wheat to human nutrition and health

Poole, Nigel; Donovan, Jason; Erenstein, Olaf

doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2020.101976

Cited by 113 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 131 publications

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“…Echoing the Royal Society ( 2009), due to the scale of the challenge, no option should be ruled out, and different approaches and strategies may be needed in different regions and circumstances. Indeed, the scale of the food security challenge requires additional investments across complementary research areas, and increased attention for one should thereby not be in lieu of the other (Poole et al, 2020). Staple cereals such as wheat and maize will continue to play a critical role to ensure an adequate and affordable intake of calories and proteins in diets in Africa and Asia, but clearly are not a panacea and diverse diets call for complementary investments across food groups (including fruits and vegetables) and food system transformation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much of the challenge thereby is the form in which foods are processed and consumed, rather than the original staples per se (Poole et al, 2020).…”

Section: Food Utilizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Staple cereals thereby will continue to play a critical role to ensure an adequate and affordable intake of calories and proteins in diets. What is more, wholegrain cereals like wheat and maize provide multiple dietary components that can help address the triple burden of undernutrition, micronutrient malnutrition and overnutrition (overweight/obesity and non-communicable diseases- Poole et al, 2020). Still, staples are not a panacea for food security and diverse diets call for complementary investments in the other food groups, food system transformation, and overall development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food Security and the Dynamics of Wheat and Maize Value Chains in Africa and Asia

Grote¹,

Faße²,

Nguyen³

et al. 2021

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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250

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There is an ongoing debate about how best to feed the growing world population in the long run and associated implications for research and development. Some call for a new Green Revolution to secure the supply of staple foods, whereas others emphasize the importance of diversifying and improving people's diets. We aim to contribute to this debate by reviewing the case of wheat and maize value chains and their contribution to food security in Africa and Asia. We first identify drivers transforming food systems. We then apply these to the cereal value chains and disentangle their effects on food security. We thereby add to the three strands in the literature around production, consumption, and food system transformation and point to different research needs and recommendations for the future. The review highlights: (1) Wheat and maize production will be increasingly impaired by ecological drivers such as land degradation, water scarcity and climate change. (2) There are promising innovations to increase and maintain productivity, but constraints in adopting these innovations have to be overcome (i.e., access to seeds, finance, and education/training). (3) The drivers affect all four dimensions of food security, but first and foremost they determine the availability and stability of maize and wheat. This indirectly also influences the economic and physical access of people to maize and wheat. (4) Research tends to focus on improving the productivity and sustainability of wheat and maize farming which is largely interlinked with the availability dimension of food security. (5) The stability and utilization dimension of food security merits continued yet increased support. First, to address climate change and implications for biotic and abiotic stresses. Second, to promote healthier diets and enable the equitable transformation of food systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much of the challenge thereby is the form in which foods are processed and consumed, rather than the original staples per se (Poole et al, 2020).…”

Section: Food Utilizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food Security and the Dynamics of Wheat and Maize Value Chains in Africa and Asia

Grote¹,

Faße²,

Nguyen³

et al. 2021

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

Self Cite

250

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show abstract

“…The crop accounts for 40% of the cereal production in SSA, where more than 80% is used as food, providing at least 30% of the total calorie intake to the people, with intake ranging from 52 to 450 g/person/day. In Latin America, maize consumption varies from 50 to 267 g/person/day (Poole et al 2020 ). Since 1961, maize production worldwide has increased from 205 million metric tons to 1145 million metric tons (FAO 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beat the stress: breeding for climate resilience in maize for the tropical rainfed environments

Cairns²,

et al. 2021

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Key message Intensive public sector breeding efforts and public-private partnerships have led to the increase in genetic gains, and deployment of elite climate-resilient maize cultivars for the stress-prone environments in the tropics. Abstract Maize (Zea mays L.) plays a critical role in ensuring food and nutritional security, and livelihoods of millions of resource-constrained smallholders. However, maize yields in the tropical rainfed environments are now increasingly vulnerable to various climate-induced stresses, especially drought, heat, waterlogging, salinity, cold, diseases, and insect pests, which often come in combinations to severely impact maize crops. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in partnership with several public and private sector institutions, has been intensively engaged over the last four decades in breeding elite tropical maize germplasm with tolerance to key abiotic and biotic stresses, using an extensive managed stress screening network and on-farm testing system. This has led to the successful development and deployment of an array of elite stress-tolerant maize cultivars across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Further increasing genetic gains in the tropical maize breeding programs demands judicious integration of doubled haploidy, high-throughput and precise phenotyping, genomics-assisted breeding, breeding data management, and more effective decision support tools. Multi-institutional efforts, especially public–private alliances, are key to ensure that the improved maize varieties effectively reach the climate-vulnerable farming communities in the tropics, including accelerated replacement of old/obsolete varieties.

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“…Every region in the world has ample supplies of carbohydrates and protein. Diet‐related health problems arise due to excessive carbohydrate intake and/or shortfalls in intake of essential micronutrients, dietary fiber, and other bioactive compounds (e.g., carotenoids, flavonoids; Poole, Donocan, and Erenstein in press). Especially with climate change, these patterns are unlikely to change without concerted agri‐food systems innovations (Nelson et al 2018; Haddad 2020).…”

Section: The Coming Decades' Five Big Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming Global Food Security Challenges through Science and Solidarity

Barrett¹

2020

American J Agri Economics

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The world faces formidable, but manageable, challenges in achieving food security in a world growing beyond 9 billion people in the coming decades. Five big challenges will necessitate shifting innovation strategy to place greater emphasis on sustainable increases in diet quality, on total factor productivity ‐ not just crop yield ‐ growth, on social protection programs, on Africa, on post‐farmgate agri‐food value chains, on risk management, and on reducing the land and water footprint of food production. We must be progressive in both senses of the term, having faith in science as an engine of societal advance, and standing with marginalized populations.

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Viewpoint: Agri-nutrition research: Revisiting the contribution of maize and wheat to human nutrition and health

Cited by 113 publications

References 131 publications

Food Security and the Dynamics of Wheat and Maize Value Chains in Africa and Asia

Food Security and the Dynamics of Wheat and Maize Value Chains in Africa and Asia

Beat the stress: breeding for climate resilience in maize for the tropical rainfed environments

Overcoming Global Food Security Challenges through Science and Solidarity

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