Establishment of Pearl Millet Biofortification Breeding and Milestones in India

Pearl millet is a critical cereal staple in arid regions of India, cultivated on approximately eight million hectares, primarily by resource-poor farmers. Addressing iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) deficiencies affecting over 50% of the rural people, biofortification breeding programs have successfully developed cultivars with enhanced grain Fe, ranging from 65 to 75 mg/kg, a 30–50% increase over conventional varieties. These biofortified cultivars exhibit competitive grain yields of 3.5–4.0 t/ha across heterogeneous environments, with genotype-by-environment interaction contributing less than 15% of micronutrient variance, ensuring genetically stable nutrient expression across diverse agro-ecologies. Marker-assisted selection targeting key quantitative trait loci (QTLs) has accelerated breeding diagnostic marker use, despite the complex polygenic control of Fe accumulation and environmental influences. Adoption of biofortified pearl millet has expanded steadily, reaching an estimated 2.5 million households, highlighting promising diffusion. Agronomic and grain quality traits remain largely unaffected, preserving farmers and consumer acceptability. However, bioavailability constraints linked to anti-nutritional factors persist, underscoring the need for more integrated agronomic and nutritional efficacy interventions. Future breeding strategies integrating genomic selection and high-throughput phenotyping hold potential to enhance selection precision and breeding efficiency to offer competitive breeding products. Overall, biofortified pearl millet cultivars present a cost-effective, scalable, sustainable intervention for reducing micronutrient malnutrition in India, particularly millet-dependent households, contingent upon continued multidisciplinary efforts to overcome genetic, environmental, and socioeconomic challenges for long-term mainstreaming commitments.