Climate-Resilient Biofortified Cereals: Breeding Sorghum, Millets and Other Staples for Sustainable, Nutrient-Dense Diets

The field of sustainable nutrition is increasingly centred on the challenge of ensuring food security, nutritional adequacy, and environmental resilience in the face of climate change. Dryland cereals such as sorghum, millets, teff, fonio, and other climate-adapted staples have re-emerged as nutritional linchpins in many regions threatened by resource degradation and dietary transitions. Recent studies underscore the potential of biofortified and improved varieties of these crops to address persistent micronutrient deficiencies, curtail the rise of diet-related chronic diseases, and reduce the environmental burden of global food systems. Despite these advances, significant gaps remain in achieving widespread adoption, optimizing the nutrient profiles while retaining climate resilience, and integrating these staples into sustainable diets suitable for diverse populations and food environments.

This Research Topic aims to unite interdisciplinary research that drives forward the breeding, nutritional characterization, and food system adoption of climate-resilient, biofortified cereals. The primary objectives are to elucidate how breeding and agronomic innovation in cereals like sorghum and millets can enhance nutrient adequacy, investigate the comprehensive health and environmental benefits of their integration into dietary patterns, and explore enabling or inhibiting factors across socio-economic, policy, and cultural contexts. Key questions include: How do biofortified cereals compare to conventional staples in delivering nutrients and supporting planetary health? What are the trade-offs and synergies between productivity, resilience, and nutritional goals in breeding programs? And what policies and interventions catalyse or impede the transition to sustainable cereal-based diets in climate-vulnerable regions?

This Research Topic is limited to the intersection of sustainable diets, climate-resilient cereal breeding, and their implications for human nutrition and environmental sustainability, in line with the remit of the Nutrition and Sustainable Diets section. Studies focusing exclusively on medical treatments or animal feed are out of scope. To gather further insights in the interplay between environmental sustainability and human nutrition, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

o Nutritional quality, biofortification, and food composition of climate-resilient cereals

o Impacts of climate, agro-ecological context, and dietary transitions on food security and nutrient intake

o Environmental footprint, life cycle assessment, and climate mitigation benefits of resilient cereal-based diets

o Innovations in post-harvest handling, processing, food loss and waste management, and value chains

o Social, cultural, behavioural, and policy dimensions influencing adoption and scaling of biofortified cereals

o Methods, metrics, and interdisciplinary interventions bridging nutrition and ecosystem services

o Digital processing innovations (e.g., 3D food printing) to improve the functionality, acceptability, and uptake of whole-grain, climate-resilient cereal-based foods

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Sustainable diets, Climate-resilient cereals, Biofortification, Micronutrient deficiencies, Food security, Life cycle assessment (LCA), Adoption and scaling

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.