Editorial 1: The nutritional value of millets
Context
- The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has declared 2023 to be the ‘International Year of Millets’, giving these crops a shot in the arm even as countries worldwide are looking to them for their ability to grow in environmental conditions that the climate crisis is rendering more common.
Defining Millets
- Millets are fundamentally grasses. They are cultivated worldwide, but especially in the tropical parts of Africa and Asia, as cereal crops.
- Some of the more common varieties include pearl millet (Cenchrus americanus), barnyard millet (Echinochloa utilis), finger millet (Eleusine coracana), and foxtail millet (Setaria italica).
- Millets were among the first crops to be domesticated. Evidence shows that the Indus valley people (3,000 BC) consumed millets. They are now grown in more than 130 countries.
The Structure
- Each millet kernel consists of three major parts, called pericarp, endosperm, and germ.
- The pericarp has an outer covering called the husk. The husk and the pericarp together protect the kernel from inhospitable conditions, disease, and physical damage.
- The endosperm is the largest part of the kernel and its ‘storage’ centre. It has a protein covering called the aleurone.
- The endosperm is relatively poor in mineral matter, ash and oil content but is a major contributor to the kernel’s protein (80%), starch (94%) and B-complex vitamins (50-75%).
Millets in India
- There is both palaeontological and textual evidence to indicate that millets were being cultivated in the Indian subcontinent five millennia ago.
- According to the Agricultural and Processed Foods Development Authority, India is the world’s largest producer of millets. It accounts for 20% of global production and 80% of Asia’s production.
- Some of the common millets available in India are Ragi (Finger millet), Jowar (Sorghum), Sama (Little millet), Bajra (Pearl millet), and Variga (Proso millet).
- Major producers include Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana.
- Millets are becoming more popular in India as well because of their low input requirements and high nutritional density, both of which are valuable for a country whose food security is expected to face significant challenges in the coming decades.
Importances of Millets
1. Climate Resilient Staple Food Crops:
- Millets are drought-resistant, require less water and can grow in poor soil conditions. This makes them a suitable food crop for areas with unpredictable weather patterns and water scarcity.
2. Rich in nutrients:
- Millets are a good source of fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals.
- The nutritional content of millets include carbohydrates, proteins, fibre, amino acids, and various minerals.
- Different millet varieties have different nutrient profiles. For example, pearl millet has higher protein content than rice, maize, and sorghum, while being comparable to that of barley.
- foxtail millet is rich in the amino acid lysine;
- finger millet has more crude fibre than wheat and rice
- proso millet has a significant amount of the amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and methionine;
- and overall, millets have been found to be important sources of micronutrients and phytochemicals.
3. Gluten-free: Millets are naturally gluten-free, making them suitable for people with celiac disease or gluten intolerance.
4. Adaptable: Millets can be grown in a variety of soils and climates, making them a versatile crop option for farmers.
- They are adapted to growing in warm weather, and require low moisture and loamy soil.
- They also thrive on marginal land in upland and hilly regions marginal land is land whose rent is higher than the value of crops that can be cultivated there.
Conclusion
- Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), ‘immunity foods’ have gained traction. In this context, micro-nutrient-rich millets are suitable substitutes for reviving our traditional food systems and maintaining ecological harmony with nature.
- Millet cultivation clearly needs state support. The Odisha Millet Mission, for example, has reportedly managed to motivate about 70,000 farmers to take up millet farming as part of this programme.
- Initiatives such as these will encourage millet production and help address micronutrient deficiency and promote concepts like nutrition entrepreneurship.
Editorial 2: Explaining mitochondrial donation treatment: how a baby has three parents
Introduction
- The announcement that a baby was born using three persons’ DNA in the U. K. recently caused the stir that news of this kind was expected to evoke. The baby, technically, has three parents, deriving the mitochondria from a donor apart from the genetic material (DNA) from biological parents. Pioneering technology was used to facilitate this, in order to prevent the child from inheriting the mother’s mitochondrial disease.
Mitochondrial diseases
- Mitochondria are basically the powerhouses of the cells. They generate energy, and thus are also responsible for cell function in the human body.
- Certain defects might occur impacting the way the mitochondria produces energy for the cells and thereby impacting cell function.
- The diseases that arise out of such mitochondrial mutations are called mitochondrial diseases where the mitochondria are impaired and do not produce sufficient energy.
- It affects how organs function, leading to a broad assortment of symptoms across the body, including brain damage, organ failure and muscle wastage.
- The symptoms get more and more debilitating as a child grows, and have no cure, but can be treated.
- Some estimates put the incidence of mitochondrial diseases as one in 5,000 people.
The scientific process
- Mitochondrial diseases are only passed on by the mother, and research has been attempting to find a way for protecting the infant from inheriting the disease.
- Through an advanced in vitro fertilisation technique the baby’s biological father’s sperm was used to fertilise the eggs from the biological mother, who has a mitochondrial disease, and a third, female donor with clear mitochondria, separately.
- Then, the nuclear genetic material from the donor’s egg is removed and replaced with the genetic material from the biological parents’. The final product — the egg — which has the genetic material (DNA) from the parents, and the mitochondria from the female donor, is implanted in the uterus, and carried to full term to yield a baby who will be free from the mother’s mitochondrial disease. This process is termed Mitochondrial Donation Treatment (MDT).
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Challenges and Issues
- Church has opposed this move saying it would lead to Frankenstein babies who will not recognize their parents and alter human race. This may be the first step towards a market of designer babies.
- Some people don’t like the idea of a baby having three biological parents, and argue that mitochondrial DNA goes some way to shaping important characteristics, such as personality.
- The efficacy and safety of this technique is yet to be demonstrated. Some argue that it is better to have pre-natal diagnosis and if fetus is found defective, terminate pregnancy.
- Sometimes it is possible that a small amount of the maternal mitochondria with errors may get passed on during the procedure.
Conclusion
- The mitochondrial gene therapy is a miracle in the life science as it can deal with the issues pertaining to inherited genetic diseases and may become a panacea to all the problems caused due to faulty genetic structures. The various ethical issues related to this technology can be sorted out through consensus building exercises but overall this technology is a boon to the entire society.