New protein enhanced maize increases nutrition by 20pc

Though the new crop is good news for most farmers in the country, seed availability will be critical to sustaining the momentum.

By Bob Koigi

A new maize variety that contains enhanced protein levels is quickly picking up among smallholder farmers in the country.

The huge attraction to the crops is due to its superior nutritional value that reduces malnutrition.

The appetite for the crop comes at a time when prices of beans and other pulses have been on an upward trend. This has left diets in poorer households maize based.

This unrivaled trait has also seen  the crop used as a livestock feed, shielding farmers from the skyrocketing feed prices. Dubbed Quality Protein Maize (QPM), the grain is a biofortified, non-transgenic food that has improved protein quality.

It looks and tastes like normal maize, but QPM contains a naturally-occurring mutant maize gene that increases the amount of two amino acids, lysine and tryptophan, necessary for protein synthesis in humans.

Higher benefits

The total protein in QPM is not actually increased. It is enhanced so that it delivers a higher benefit when consumed by humans and pigs. The crop contains enhanced essential amino acids along with characteristics that make more of its protein useful to humans or farm animals.

It has 90 per cent of the nutritive value of milk, and can stem or reverse protein malnutrition. Eating quality protein maize increases the growth rate of moderately malnourished children who survive on a maize-dominated diet.  This is according to a study co-authored by five scientists, including two CIMMYT maize experts. Embu was one of the first four districts to host QPM promotion trials in 2009. The trials have now gone full throttle.

Research from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that two in every three households now grow the maize with assistance from research institutions like Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari).

 As the price of beans rise steadily, diets in poorer households are increasingly maize-based. Serious protein malnutrition is now common in weaning babies, whose staple is maize porridge.

In Ethiopia, where the QPM variety has heavily been embedded in the diet, the heights and weights of pre-school children increased more than 20 per cent faster compared to children who ate conventional maize.

This is according to a 2010 study in rural Ethiopia on the nutritional benefits of QPM and its acceptance as a food.  The QPM varieties being promoted are the products of 30 years of research involving CIMMYT maize breeders. 

At the recent field day in Embu the farmers said they preferred the taste, texture, and appearance of githeri made with the QPM. The Canadian International Development Agency is supporting the development and deployment of locally adapted QPM, in a project led by CIMMYT’s Dennis Friesen. “Kari has been our partner in adapting QPM to local environments and identifying farmer-preferred cultivars,” says Friesen.

Crop linkages

 “We are also working with the Catholic Relief Services, which has strong grassroots linkages, the Catholic Diocese of Embu, and the Ministry of Agriculture to promote QPM on the ground.”  “Even without beans, with this maize your githeri is full of protein,” adds the church’s chief extension officer, John Namu Munene.  Johnson Irungu, the Catholic Relief Services officer overseeing the dissemination project, says he is happy with the acceptance of QPM among farmers.  But he quickly adds that seed availability will be critical to sustaining the momentum. But the QPM trait is recessive.

 If the maize is planted close to non-QPM varieties and is fertilised by their pollen, the quality trait will be lost.  FCIMMYT has supported two local seed companies, Western Seed Company and Freshco Ltd, to produce early maturing seeds that are drought-tolerant.