Quality Protein Maize

QPM

QPM is being loaded on a truck for delivery to more needy farmers. Important to Self-Help’s work is a corn, Quality Protein Maize (QPM). QPM Improves Lives

Farmers

Self-Help promotes its cultivation to improve and increase yields compared to traditional corn.
Self-Help works with farmers at the grass roots level who typically till land manually. Marginal land limits production. We provide education and training in: the benefits of QPM; ways to improve cultivation practices with the environment in mind; introducing no-tillage to reduce

erosion; and providing loans for QPM seed and pesticides to grow a crop that increases yields and improves diets. Post-harvest practices are important as well. SHI provides instruction in improved drying practices and corn crib construction and use reducing post-harvest losses by 37%.

Women

QPM is included in the women’s micro-credit programs to enhance diets for poultry and pig production, and for human consumption in food preparation enterprises, such as tortillas, corncakes, biscuits sold locally.

Children: The children’s feeding project, devoted to alleviating malnutrition, provides QPM porridge with pinches of barley malt to children 6 months to 6 years. QPM is an affordable, effective product which improves nutrition and access to protein among the poor.

The Benefits of QPM

QPM is corn that

Doubles the protein digestibility as traditional corn;
Has 90% digestible protein as compared to skim milk;
Increases crop yields as compared to traditional corn;
Helps people’s growth (in children especially) catch-up with “normal”;
Reduces stunting (in weaning children especially) that is often caused by protein/calorie deficient diets;
Allows one-stomach animals to grow and gain weight faster.

Its History

Maize (corn) is a food staple found in many developing countries. In addition to supplying needed calories, maize is often the single largest source of protein intake for the poor. However, children weaned on normal maize receive protein with low levels of two nutritionally-vital amino acids, lysine and tryptophan.

Discovering this limitation led to 30 years of research. Scientists at Purdue University (USA) identified a maize strain with a gene that increased levels of these amino acids. Scientists at CIMMYT (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo, Int.) in Mexico continued efforts to improve its viability. Maize breeder Surinder K. Vasal and cereal chemist Evangelina Villegas (2000 World Food Prize Laureates) were successful and developed a new maize they named Quality Protein Maize (QPM). This new maize has a protein that allows animals with only one stomach (including humans) to utilize it more efficiently.

Self-Help’s Impact

Farmers in Ghana have grown QPM since the 1990s when it was introduced and promoted by Research, Public Health and Extension Institutions of the Government of Ghana in partnership with Sasakawa Global 2000, headed by Dr. Norman Borlaug. Self-Help International has collaborated, early in the development process, with all these organizations to improve the welfare of farmers and consumers. SHI began promoting QPM in Nicaragua in 1999 and now our QPM cooperative has grown into a national certified seed production enterprise. And, we are ready to begin a new effort in another part of the country. In Ghana, half of that nation’s corn harvest is now QPM.

Sales of QPM have stimulated other business enterprises such as plow and oxen rental, livestock grain production, mechanized maize milling operations and metal storage bin distribution – which reduces post-harvest crop loss by 37%. The increased yield, production, income and human nutrition makes QPM a welcomed tool in the fight against alleviating hunger in the world.

* Quality Protein Maize, Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation Board on Science and Technology for International Development, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1988

Dr. Borlaug’s Support

Here’s what Dr. Norman Borlaug says about Self-Help’s efforts which include training local farmers to grow QPM:

“I endorse this project because it is a simple and practical solution to alleviating hunger. I recognize the benefits of QPM and barley malt to babies and young children in developing countries, such as Ghana, where corn porridge is the typical weaning supplement. In addition, the project trains Ghanaians to manage the feeding centers and includes affordable and available food source (QPM and barley malt) that allows project sustainability.”

Dr. Norman E. Borlaug

SAA President
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 1970
Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient
Self-Help International Honorary Board Member