National Academies Press: OpenBook
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1988. Quality-Protein Maize: Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council, in Cooperation With the Board on Agriculture National Research Co. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18563.
×
Page R1
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1988. Quality-Protein Maize: Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council, in Cooperation With the Board on Agriculture National Research Co. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18563.
×
Page R2
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1988. Quality-Protein Maize: Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council, in Cooperation With the Board on Agriculture National Research Co. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18563.
×
Page R3
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1988. Quality-Protein Maize: Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council, in Cooperation With the Board on Agriculture National Research Co. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18563.
×
Page R4
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1988. Quality-Protein Maize: Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council, in Cooperation With the Board on Agriculture National Research Co. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18563.
×
Page R5
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1988. Quality-Protein Maize: Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council, in Cooperation With the Board on Agriculture National Research Co. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18563.
×
Page R6
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1988. Quality-Protein Maize: Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council, in Cooperation With the Board on Agriculture National Research Co. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18563.
×
Page R7
Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1988. Quality-Protein Maize: Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council, in Cooperation With the Board on Agriculture National Research Co. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18563.
×
Page R8
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1988. Quality-Protein Maize: Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council, in Cooperation With the Board on Agriculture National Research Co. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18563.
×
Page R9

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

REFERENCE COPY FOR LIBRARY USE ONLY QUALITY-PROTEIN MAIZE Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council in Cooperation with the Board on Agriculture National Research Council PROPERTY c." BRC LIBRARY Information Service Springfield. Va, 2216) Order No. — _ NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS Washington, D.C. 1988

TV. ~\ „ NOTICE: The project that h the subject of this report was approved by the Governing ' V oa Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils (2 i of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the • Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competence and with regard for appropriate balance. This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Frank Press is president of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of'outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Robert M. White is president of the National Academy of Engineering. The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Samuel O. Thier is president of the Institute of Medicine. The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Frank Press and Dr. Robert M. White are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council. The Board on Science and Technology for International Development (BOSTID) of the Office of International Affairs addresses a range of issues arising from the ways in which science and technology in developing countries can stimulate and complement the complex processes of social and economic development. It oversees a broad program of bilateral workshops with scientific organizations in developing countries and conducts special studies. BOSTID's Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation publishes topical reviews of technical processes and biological resources of potential importance to developing countries. This report has been prepared by an ad hoc advisory panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation, Board on Science and Technology for International Devel- opment, Office of International Affairs, National Research Council. Staff support was funded by the Office of the Science Advisor, U.S. Agency for International Development, under Grant No. DAN 5538-G-SS-1023-00. Program costs were provided by the Office of Agriculture, Bureau for Science and Technology, U. S. Agency for International Development, under Amendment No. 25 to the same grant. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 88-60703 ISBN 309-04262-3 Cover illustration: Dante/Cameraworks

UUL 1 2 1988 PANEL ON QUALITY-PROTEIN MAIZE WILLIAM L. BROWN, Retired Chairman and President, Pioneer Hi- Bred International, Inc., Johnston, Iowa; and Chairman, Board on Agriculture, The National Research Council, Chairman RICARDO BRESSANI, Head, Division of Food Sciences, Instituto de Nutrici6n de Centro America y Panama, Guatemala City, Guatemala DAVID V. GLOVER, Professor of Plant Genetics and Breeding, Purdue University ARNEL R. HALLAUER, Research Geneticist, U. S. Department of Agriculture and Professor of Agronomy, Iowa State University VIRGIL A. JOHNSON, Wheat Research Leader, U. S. Department of Agriculture and Professor of Agronomy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln CALVIN O. QUALSET, Director of Genetic Resources Conservation Program and Professor of Agronomy, University of California, Davis NOEL D. VIETMEYER, Senior Program Officer, Board on Science and Technology for International Development, Quality-Protein Maize Study Director and Scientific Editor National Research Council Staff F. R. RUSKIN, BOSTID Editor MARY JANE ENGQUIST, Staff Associate MEDGE R. CANSECO, Administrative Secretary ELIZABETH MOUZON, Senior Secretary ill

SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS Centre Internacional de Meioramiento de Mafz y Trigo (CIMMYT) REYNALD BAUER Z., General Laboratories MAGNI BJARNASON, Maize Program RONALD P. CANTRELL, Director, Maize Program HUGO S. CORDOVA, Maize Program W. CLIVE JAMES, Deputy Director General ENRIQUE ORTEGA M., General Laboratories R. L. PALIWAL, Associate Director, Maize Program ROBERT TRIPP, Economics Program SURINDER K. VASAL, Maize Program EVANGELINA ViLLEGAS M., Head, General Laboratories DONALD L. WINKELMANN, Director General Other Contributors JOHN D. AXTELL,Professor of Genetics, Department of Agronomy, Purdue University GEORGE H. BEATON, Professor of Nutritional Science, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto CHARLES BENBROOK, Executive Director, Board on Agriculture, National Research Council DENNIS M. BIER, Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis A. JOHN BOCKHOLT, Department of Soil and Crop Science, Texas A & M University, College Station KENNETH CARPENTER, Professor of Experimental Nutrition, Univer- sity of California, Berkeley ALEJANDRO FUENTES, Corn Breeder, Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnologia Agricolas (ICTA), Guatemala City GEORGE GRAHAM, Professor of Human Nutrition and Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University JAMES P. GRANT, Executive Director, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), New York ALFRED E. HARPER, Professor of Nutritional Science, Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison DALE D. HARPSTEAD, Professor, Department of Crop and Soil Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing iv

D. MARK HEGSTED, Associate Director for Research, Harvard Medical School, New England Regional Primate Center, Southborough, Massachussetts JAMES G. HORSFALL, Head, Department of Plant Pathology and Botany, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven GEORGE INGLETT, Chief, Cereal Science and Food Laboratory, Ag- ricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Peoria, Illinois G. RICHARD JANSEN, Professor of Food Science and Nutrition, Colorado State University, Fort Collins AUSTIN LEWIS, Professor, Department of Animal Science, University of Nebraska, Lincoln JEROME H. MANER, Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, Winrock International, Morrilton, Arkansas JEAN MAYER, President, Tufts University EDWIN T. MERTZ, Consultant, Emeritus Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University HAMISH N. MUNRO, Professor, Department of Applied Biological Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology OLIVER E. NELSON, JR., Professor, Department of Genetics, Univer- sity of Wisconsin, Madison PETER L. PELLETT, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Massachusetts, Amherst ALBERTO PRADILLA, Nutrition Unit, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland LLOYD W. ROONEY, Department of Soil and Crop Science, Texas A & M University, College Station NEVIN S. SCRIMSHAW, Professor of Human Nutrition, Applied Bio- logical Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology STEWART N. SMITH, Henry Luce Professor of Agriculture and Society, School of Nutrition, Tufts University GEORGE F. SPRAGUE, Professor of Agronomy, Department of Agri- culture, University of Illinois, Urbana VERNON YOUNG, Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry, Depart- ment of Applied Biological Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Preface In Latin America, Africa, and Asia, several hundred million people depend on maize for their daily food. For many, it is the main source of dietary protein. Poverty makes it almost impossible for them to afford meat, eggs, or milk, except perhaps on a few special occasions. Some cannot afford even beans or other protein-rich plant foods to supplement the maize. And many raise very young children on foods that are almost entirely derived from maize. This dependence on a single crop creates a vulnerability in these societies because traditional maize varieties are poor in protein quality. By itself, traditional maize in such high proportions cannot sustain acceptable growth and adequate health, especially in children, pregnant and lactating women, and the sick. To help rectify this deficiency, researchers have attempted, for about 25 years, to create nutritionally improved types of maize. This effort was stimulated by the 1963 discovery that a little-known mutant maize contained proteins that are nearly twice as nutritious as those found in normal maize. Called "opaque-2 maize," its protein had a nutritive value about 90 percent of that of proteins found in skim milk—the standard against which cereal protein is normally measured. The implications of this discovery were considered remarkable. It was estimated that adding the opaque-2 gene to the world's maize crop would add 10 million tons of quality protein to the world food supply. That, in turn, was expected to alleviate malnutrition among hundreds of millions of poor people in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. But in the 1970s many practical problems arose. Compared with ordinary maize, opaque-2 yielded less grain, and its grain weighed less, had higher moisture at harvest, and succumbed more to fungal infections and storage insect infestations. Many users disliked the grain's dull and chalky appearance, having been accustomed to hard and glossy kernels. Most industrial processors objected to the floury texture of the soft kernels, which were more difficult to store and to mill. vii

Opaque-2's development was then dealt a near-fatal blow when, beginning in 1974, a series of letters and articles appeared in medical and nutrition journals claiming that the world in fact had little or no protein shortage. The human requirement for protein is not high, said the writers, and if people would just eat more of their existing staples, the "protein gap" would disappear. Many nutritionists supported that view, and the fundamental reason for the creation of opaque-2 maize was undermined. By the mid-1970s, interest had declined almost to the vanishing point. Nonetheless, a few scientists persisted in trying to overcome the technical limitations of opaque-2. A notable effort was that of a small team of maize breeders at the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT). For 10 years, in their laboratories and fields in Mexico, they continued improving the agronomic qualities of the new maize. By the early 1980s, they claimed to have developed experimental varieties with high nutritive quality, high yields, normal moisture content, traditional appearance, and conventional hardness. By 1986, they had, it seemed, fundamentally transformed opaque-2 maize into a maize that was "normal" in all respects except for its superior nutritional value. They called the new variety "quality-protein maize" (QPM). The purpose of this study is to review QPM's status, to determine whether its previous limitations have indeed been overcome, to consider the potential of this transformation of one of the world's major crops, and to bring an appreciation of QPM—so far little known beyond a limited circle of plant breeders—to a wider audience. The panel that produced this report met in April 1986 at the CIMMYT headquarters in Mexico. Over a period of three days, panel members interviewed CIMMYT researchers, analyzed details of the QPM data, and traveled to a field research station to examine test plots. The NRC staff then followed up the panel's meeting by contacting other re- searchers (see contributors' list) and integrating their comments with those of the panel into the current text. This report is intended mainly for agencies engaged in development assistance and food relief, officials and institutions concerned with agriculture in developing countries, scientists with relevant interests, and corporations involved in cereal science. It is a joint project of two divisions of the National Research Council: the Board on Agriculture and the Board on Science and Technology for International Develop- ment (BOSTID). The report continues a BOSTID series that explores promising plant resources that heretofore have been unknown, ne- glected, or overlooked. This series is issued under the auspices of BOSTID's Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation (ACTI). vni

Established in 1971, ACTI's mandate is to assess unconventional scientific and technological advances of particular relevance to prob- lems of developing countries. Other plant-science titles in ACTI's series include: • Underexploited Tropical Plants with Promising Economic Value (1975) • Making Aquatic Weeds Useful: Some Perspectives for Developing Countries (1976) • Tropical Legumes: Resources for the Future (1979) • The Winged Bean: A High-Protein Crop for the Tropics (1981) • Amaranth: Modern Prospects for an Ancient Crop (1983) • Triticale: A Promising Addition to the World's Cereal Grains (1988) • Lost Crops of the Incas (In preparation). The panel members are grateful to the CIMMYT staff for their assistance and hospitality, as well as for the yield information and other basic data on which this report's conclusions are based. Funds for this study were made available by the Office of Agriculture in the Bureau for Science and Technology, and by the Office of the Science Advisor, U.S. Agency for International Development. How to cite this report: National Research Council. 1988. Quality-Protein Maize. National Academy Press, Washington, B.C. IX

Contents 1 Malnutrition and Protein Quality 1 2 Maize 8 3 Nutritionally Improved Maize 18 4 The Promise of QPM 35 5 Limitations and Uncertainties 41 6 Food and Feed Uses 46 7 Genetics 57 8 Experiences Around the World 64 9 Research Needs 72 APPENDIXES A QPM's Future in the United States 77 B Suggested Readings and References 80 C Research Contacts 84 D Biographical Sketches of Panel Members 89 Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation 92 Board on Science and Technology for International Development (BOSTID) 92 BOSTID Publications 95

Next: Malnutrition and Protein Quality »
Quality-Protein Maize: Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development National Research Council, in Cooperation With the Board on Agriculture National Research Co Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF
  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!