Pearl Millet: Biofortification Approaches in a Micronutrient Dense, Climate-Resilient Nutri-Cereal

Pearl millet forms an integral part of food and nutritional security to the millions resource-poor inhabitants in the semi-arid and arid regions of the world. Earlier considered as orphan, under used and neglected crop, pearl millet is the powerhouse of nutrients and has high resilience to harsh environments such as drought, salinity, and extreme temperature. It can yield well with limited resources. Micronutrient malnutrition “hidden hunger” continues to linger throughout the developing world particularly in the marginal environments where people cannot afford to have nutrient supplements in their diets. Hence improving the nutrient profile of native climate-resilient staple food crop like pearl millet can address the problem of micronutrient malnutrition. In this route, research was initiated on biofortification of grain micronutrients in pearl millet by ICRISAT and various NARS partners, resulted astounding progress in understanding the diversity and genetics of the traits, mapping and thereby devising a way to manipulate them for the development of high micronutrient-rich cultivars. Many of these cultivars became popular among farmers of India and Africa resulting in dynamic livelihood changes. The current chapter describes the success story of pearl millet biofortification program in context to micronutrient enrichment in grains.