Biofortification - A promising approach to enhance iron and zinc content in cowpea

Abstract

More than half of the world's population is known to suffer from micronutrient malnutrition, which is one of the biggest threats to humanity. Biofortification, a method of breeding nutrients into food crops, is one strategy to address the problem of micronutrient malnutrition. It offers a comparatively affordable, sustainable, and long-term way of providing more micronutrients to rural populations in developing countries. Cowpea is an important pulse crop for global food security and population health due to its high nutritional and nutraceutical values. At present, agronomic, conventional plant breeding, genetic modification and microbial interventions are common methods for biofortification. Agronomic biofortification is the application of fertilizers to increase the micronutrients in edible parts. Due to their distinct structural traits and great efficacy, the use of nanomaterials as fertilizers has become a viable alternative to conventional fertilizers. Breeding procedures involve identifying genetic variation, testing their stability and determining the feasibility of breeding to increase mineral content in edible tissues without altering yields or other quality attributes. When genetic variations are not present then genetic transformation i.e., Biofortification with the help of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria is microbial biofortification. Among them, agronomic biofortification is simple, easy, inexpensive and quick but in the long term, conventional plant breeding is more stable and cost-effective. Pant lobia-1, 2,3,4,5 are some popular iron and zinc biofortified cowpea varieties developed through conventional breeding. Although some research work has been done in cowpea regarding iron and zinc biofortification, supporting extensive prospective studies on evaluating the results of nutritional fortification is a major challenge.