Decoding the genomes of Africa's 'orphan crops'

摘要

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest poverty rate in the world, with 47.5 percent of the population living below USD 1.25 a day in 2008. Approximately 195 million children in the world suffer from chronic malnutrition, or stunting. This represents a third of all children who are under 5 years old. Of these, 90 percent live in just thirty-six countries, twenty-one of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa. In some African countries the proportion of children stunted is as high as 50 percent.