Finger Millet Biofortification Breeding Approaches and Progress: An Update

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana), is an important crop for its high nutritional value, and is an important climate-resilient crop with tremendous potential to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies in India and elsewhere. Biofortification breeding efforts performed by ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR), Hyderabad, in conjunction with AICRP-Small Millets, have resulted in considerable increases in grain iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), and calcium (Ca). ICAR-IIMR has identified benchmark variety, such as GPU-28, with around 60 ppm Fe and 30 ppm Zn, to serve as control for national germplasm screening. Breeding product targets are set at 65 ppm Fe and 31 ppm Zn, with aspirational levels of 90 ppm Fe and 40 ppm Zn in breeding populations. Simultaneously, genetic stocks with critical features such as disease resistance and nutritional density have been conserved and defined. Among the biofortified cultivars introduced under the coordinated research program are CFMV1 (Indravati) with 428 mg/100 g Ca, 58 ppm Fe, and 44 ppm Zn, and CFMV2 with 454 mg/100 g Ca, 39 ppm Fe, and 25 ppm Zn. These results show that traditional breeding procedures are effective in producing nutrient-rich high-yielding finger millet cultivars. Moving forward, integrating genomic technologies, SNP-based selection, and speed breeding platforms will be critical to speeding the creation of commercially competitive biofortified varieties for long-term nutritional security. ICAR-IIMR, has spearheaded multiple initiatives to enhance nutrition, value addition, and farmer empowerment through biofortification and millet innovation in India. Notably, the Global Centre of Excellence on Millets is envisioned to support genomics-assisted breeding, speed breeding, gene editing, and advanced processing facilities for accelerated millets improvement for productivity and mainstreaming nutritional traits.