Progress Report – Thavarajah, Kresovich, and Dale

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Biofortified Legume and Cereal Cropping Systems to Increase Food Security in Haiti

PI: Dil Thavarajah, Associate Professor, Pulse Quality and Nutrition, Plant and Environmental Sciences (PES), Clemson University (CU) – lead legume biofortification and nutrigenomics. Co-PI: Stephen Kresovich, Professor, Plant Breeding and Translational Genomics, Robert and Lois Coker Trustees Chair of Genetics – lead biofortification and translational genomics.

Haitian PI: Dr. Gael Pressoir, Executive Research Director, Vice Dean Research, University of Quisqueya, Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Haiti – lead Haitian research, extension, and service activities related legume/cereal biofortification. Dr. Pressoir has a team of colleagues including cereal/legume breeders, food technologists, soil scientists, and agronomists.

Student Collaborator: Savanah Dale, PES

Progress (Jan- Sep 30, 2018): Two members of our team (Dr. Kresovich and Savanah Dale) went to the University of Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to meet with Dr. Pressoir and his research team, May 13-19, 2018. The purpose of this meeting was to (1) identify scientific and technological problems associated with Haitian cropping systems, i.e., developing breeding strategies for biofortification, food accessibility, utilization, and human health issues; (2) conduct a one-day workshop on the food system approach (translational genomics, food nutritional quality/human health, and food utilization); and (3) determine local community areas to develop future model vegetable gardens that can provide sufficient nutrition to a family (https://spark.adobe.com/video/ZoNG3u9iz8zdl). Haiti’s food system suffers from two main problems today: the inability to produce large quantities of food and the inability to discriminate against poor quality food and distribute the good quality food. Currently, there are ongoing programs in Haiti designed to use sorghum as a model crop to reconstruct the Haitian food system. Meeting Goal: Develop sweet sorghum varieties with high stalk sucrose concentration to increase biomass, grain yield, and high value of the leaves/residues as animal feed. Implementation: CHIBAS uses a low-resource breeding program to make genomic selections of sweet sorghum that is multipurpose in that it is used to produce feed, food and fuel. Papasek is the current variety of sweet sorghum that is most commonly grown across the entirety of Haiti due to its propensity for relatively high yield and drought tolerance. This variety has no recorded background and so little is known about its agronomic or nutritional information. Dr. Pressoir is conducting saline trials and drought trials of both papasek and new varieties of multipurpose sweet sorghum in multiple areas of Haiti to develop varieties optimized to Haiti. However, Genomic selection is becoming more and more costly for this program, which is where we may collaborate in the future. Their institute also works with smallholder farmers to educate them about how to increase yield through cultivation techniques and they are creating a “block” system in which farmers can combine their resources. Because most farms in Haiti have very little acreage, industrialized processes such as tillage are inefficient. However, through “blocking” the land together, farmers can pool their resources to more efficiently produce sorghum. This blocking system also will allow farmers to sell larger quantities of sorghum, as a coop

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would, to major buyers who are not interested in purchasing small quantities of sorghum for use in distilling or grain processing. Proposed work for second year: Invite Dr. Gael Pressoir to visit Clemson University to prepare a USAID proposal Depending on the available funds Dr. Thavarajah will visit to Haiti to establish legume

initiative with Dr. Rebeca McGee from Washington State University. Etoile du Nord S.A. (EDN) Kenneth Michel: Chief Executive Officer EDN is a program funded by USAID’s LEVE program. EDN is working in partnership with CHIBAS and the Smallholder Alliance for Sorghum in Haiti (SMASH) to act as a grain elevator and build the collection and distribution system of sorghum. One of the biggest challenges smallholder farmers in Haiti face is the lack of market for small quantities of their products. To alleviate this issue in the value chain, EDN works with CHIBAS and the blocking system as well as independent smallholder farmers to collect the small quantities of grain and process them to ensure contaminants such as aflatoxin and weed seed are not present in the processed grain. EDN then sells the grain to consumers in the market, including the Heineken subset in Haiti, which will soon be sourcing up to 20% of its input grain from Haiti, rather than importing it from other countries. iF Foundation David Doherty: Vice-Chair The iF Foundation works to educate the local community in Cap Hatien about proper small-scale farming techniques. They focus on sustainability of their systems and have raised beds, small intercropped fields and practice vermiculture. Pictures: Sorghum grain

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Whole-grain sorghum free of aflatoxin, debris and weeds.

Papasek sorghum variety grown in the Cap Hatien area by the iF Foundation

Sorghum Inbred varieties from Dr. Kresovich’ group planted by the iF Foundation.

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Salinity trials in the Port-au-Prince region.

Papasek sorghum - smallholder farmer field.

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Papasek sorghum grown in the Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The iF Foundation planted small fields of various vegetable crops - Solanaceae crops

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The iF Foundation practiced the used of raised beds and greenhouses for vegetable production Fruit production -iF Foundation

Banana Papaya

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Mangoes