Mexican scientists work on improvements of sorghum for human consumption

Mexico, Oct. 2 (Notimex).- Scientists from the Training and Development Center in Seed Technology (CCDTS, for its acronym in Spanish), from the Autonomous Agrarian University Antonio Narro (UAAAN, for its acronym in Spanish), are working on the development of new genotypes of sorghum for human consumption. This cereal is used for cattle feed, but in other countries of Asia and Africa is consumed by the population due to its nutritional properties such as slow absorption of sugars, high quality and low-fat content, in addition to its low production cost and high potential performance. Thus, the Mexican scientists team seek to improve genetically the grains to be suitable for human consumption, in accordance with the environmental conditions of the northeastern region of Mexico and particularly the southeast of Coahuila. The work is carried out through the evaluation of the nutritional quality of the grain, flour quality and yield potential in the field, the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt, for its acronym in Spanish) reported through its information agency. The scientific project is coordinated by Antonio Flores Naveda, who belongs to the CCDTS, under the Plant Breeding Department of said university. Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal in the world; it is a crop tolerant to drought and high temperatures, to drastic environments in that matter. In Mexico, it is being used as food for the livestock sector and now it is being worked on the production of sorghum for human consumption. It has a very important nutritional quality as protein, which is what the agricultural sector is looking for, and the results of the analysis that has been made of pigmented testa sorghum quality for human consumption reveal that it has a large amount of anthocyanins and antioxidants. Jesús Guadalupe Izaguirre Castillo, a student of agro engineering from the UAAAN and collaborator in the project, explained that the production of sorghum is increasing in the country. In fact, we are one of the main sorghum producing countries in the world, but it is almost entirely destined to feed animals in the agricultural sector, he added. NTX/MSG/PAP