...sorghum has high nutritional content, thus it can be developed as an alternative food ingredient to strengthen domestic food security and overcome the global food crisis.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Genome editing can prove useful for developing several higher quality sorghum varieties to strengthen national food security, according to the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).

"The use of genome editing technology can improve the genetic properties of sorghum plants," a researcher from BRIN’s Horticulture and Plantation Research Center (PRHP), Tri Joko Santoso, said in a statement issued on Friday.

Genome editing is a molecular technology through which DNA sequences can be inserted, replaced, deleted, and transferred precisely using particular enzymes, he informed.

Genome editing technology makes gene modification more precise since it targets a specific mutation as well as more economical as there are few implementation stages, thus helping save costs, he added.

However, there are a number of disadvantages to the use of gene modification, for instance, as the method is based on genetic transformation techniques, it may lead to unwanted mutations, according to the statement.

In addition, not all laboratories have been able to apply the technology and there are no specific regulations regarding it in Indonesia.

The quality of sorghum should be improved since the commodity has great potential to bolster Indonesia’s food security and provide benefits in the future, Santoso noted.

Gene modification has great prospects for improving sorghum because it is simpler and relatively faster than genetic engineering, he said.

According to a researcher from BRIN’s Research Center for Food Crops (PRTP), Endang Gati Lestari, sorghum can serve as a raw food material and can be processed into cakes, pastries, chips, and crackers.

"Sorghum is important because Indonesia has vast marginal land and dry land, which can be utilized (to plant sorghum), and sorghum has high nutritional content, thus it can be developed as an alternative food ingredient to strengthen domestic food security and overcome the global food crisis," she added.

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Translator: Martha Simanjuntak, Uyu Liman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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