MillNET_i: Millets and Nutritional Enhancement Traits for Iron bioavailability

缺铁仍然是全世界最普遍的营养缺乏症，估计有40至60亿人受到影响。缺铁性贫血(IDA)是世界上最大的营养缺乏性疾病，是造成全球疾病负担的五大原因之一。在任何时候，患IDA的人都比其他任何健康问题都多，全世界受影响的人达到惊人的12.4亿人。在发展中国家，小米是最常见的谷物形式，通常由半干旱热带地区的女性小农种植。它们对干旱和气候变化的抵抗力，以及营养密集的特点，正吸引着撒哈拉以南非洲越来越多的小规模农民和政府。虽然小米的营养价值已被确定，但在创造易于为人们接受的功能食品方面进展有限。小米的生物强化也是一个提高营养质量的新兴领域研究。为期两年的千禧年计划的目标是通过推广珍珠和小米的使用和制备来解决铁的生物可利用性(与生物强化有关)这一主要问题，最初在埃塞俄比亚和冈比亚，但对非洲许多半干旱地区具有更广泛的相关性。该方案是与印度、埃塞俄比亚和冈比亚的同事以及一个由英国专家组成的财团共同创建的，将对铁生物有效性的生长、加工和监测进行基础科学调查，并与社会科学方法相结合，向区域人口传播知识和改进种植和食物制备(推广)做法。该计划建立在现有的生物强化计划(ICRISAT)、生物有效性测试(MRC-冈比亚)和社会科学研究的基础上，这些研究表明，在冈比亚和埃塞俄比亚，农村向城市的迁移正在创造对谷子等更有营养的食物的需求。我们将探索不同地区和种植实践(生长：NIAB、UCAM、ICRISAT、EIAR)谷子对作物铁吸收和可获得性特征的差异基础。埃塞俄比亚关于食品制备和加工的其他研究(加工：BDU、ICRISAT、UCAM、MRC-冈比亚)将与国际认可的人类营养干预研究方案(生物利用度：MRC-冈比亚、UCAM)联系起来，分析来自当地人口的健康成年女性代表的血浆铁的生物利用度。除了为改善农村社区的营养和健康而开展的外联活动(推广(CGE/JeCCDO、BDU、UCAM：CGC、GFS IRC、CAPREX)外，千禧年关于城乡联系的更多见解将与粮食汇出的做法以及在粮食安全、改善营养状况和农村人口的销售机会方面的潜在作用有关。这些具有高度原创性的观察结果将对非洲和印度的许多人口具有国际意义，在这些国家，城乡鸿沟代表着一个复杂和相互关联的现实，即“捉襟见肘”或“多节点”的家庭。

Iron deficiency remains the most prevalent nutritional deficiency worldwide, affecting an estimated 4 to 6 billion people. Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is the largest nutritional deficiency disorder in the world and one of the five leading causes of global disease burden. At any given moment, more individuals suffer from IDA than any other health problem with a staggering 1.24 billion affected individuals worldwide.In developing countries, millets are the most common form of cereals, often cultivated by female small holders in semi-arid tropic regions. Their resistance to drought and climate variability, along with nutrient dense characteristics, is attracting an increasing number of small scale farmers and governments in Sub Saharan Africa. While the nutritional value of millets has been identified, there has been limited progress on the creation of functional foods that are readily acceptable to populations. Biofortification of millets is also an emerging area research for enhancing nutritional quality.The goals of the two-year MillNETi are to tackle the major issue of iron bioavailability (relative to biofortification) by promoting the use and preparation of pearl and finger millets, initially in Ethiopia and The Gambia, but of wider relevance for many semi-arid regions of Africa. The programme has been co-created with colleagues in India, Ethiopia and The Gambia, and a consortium of UK expertise and will undertake fundamental scientific investigations for the GROWTH, PROCESSING and monitoring of iron BIOAVAILABILTY, allied to social science methodologies to disseminate knowledge and improved practices in cultivation and food preparation (EXTENSION) to regional populations. The programme builds on an existing programme of biofortification (ICRISAT), bioavailability testing (MRC- Gambia), and social science studies indicating that rural - urban migration is creating a demand for more nutritious foods such as millets both in The Gambia and Ethiopia.We will explore the basis of variation in crop iron uptake and availability traits in millets from contrasting regions and cropping practices (GROWTH: NIAB, UCAM, ICRISAT, EIAR). Additional research in Ethiopia on food preparation and processing (PROCESSING: BDU, ICRISAT, UCAM, MRC-Gambia) will be linked with a programme of internationally-validated human nutrition intervention studies (BIOAVAILABILITY: MRC-Gambia, UCAM), analysing plasma bioavailability of iron in healthy adult female representatives from local populations. As well as outreach to improve the nutrition and health of rural communities (EXTENSION (CGE/JeCCDO, BDU, UCAM: CGC, GFS IRC, CAPREX) additional insights from MillNETi on rural-urban linkages will be associated with the practice of food remitting, and potential role in food security, improved nutritional status and marketing opportunities for rural populations. These highly original observations will be of international significance for many populations in Africa and India, where the rural-urban divide represents a complex and interlinked reality of 'stretched' or 'multi-nodal' households.