Precision Agriculture
African regulators say the continent has the appropriate legal regime to oversee the safe use of GMOs — Genetic Literacy Project
Part II: Can Uganda and Kenya become Africa’s hub for crop biotechnology innovation? — Genetic Literacy Project
Viewpoint: With two decades of resounding GMO maize success, South Africa offers lessons on food security for the rest of the continent — Genetic Literacy Project
African countries in the south of the Sahara have a lot to learn from South Africa’s successes in Genetically Modified (GM) plant agriculture. The southern African country appears poised for significant triumphs in its quest for greater food security, thanks to its embrace of agricultural biotechnology. [newsletter] Its adoption of Bt white maize in 2001-2002 […]
Viewpoint: With two decades of resounding GMO maize success, South Africa offers lessons on food security for the rest of the continent — Genetic Literacy Project
Regulators in Kenya certify safety of GMO disease-resistant cassava — Genetic Literacy Project
Viewpoint: GMOs offer protection against diseases, including cancer, by shielding us from dangerous aflatoxins — Genetic Literacy Project
Focus on achieving wider impacts and building resilience for larger populations, Africa RISING urged — Africa RISING
The Africa RISING program should keep working towards achieving wider impacts and building resilience for larger populations, USAID Bureau for Food Security program leader for sustainable intensification, Jerry Glover, has said.
Adopting good agricultural practises was the game changer I needed! — Africa RISING (Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation)
Embracing good agricultural practices in lessons from the project has turned around the fortunes of Method Magoda, a 39-year-old farmer from Utengule Village in Kilolo District, Tanzania.
via Adopting good agricultural practises was the game changer I needed! — Africa RISING
EPA reaffirms glyphosate weed killer safe, calls IARC cancer designation an ‘outlier’ inconsistent with multiple countries’ assessments — Genetic Literacy Project — Science is distorted by progressive philosophy
via EPA reaffirms glyphosate weed killer safe, calls IARC cancer designation an ‘outlier’ inconsistent with multiple countries’ assessments — Genetic Literacy Project
Insect-resistant GMO cowpeas slated to feed West African families
Plagued by pest, African farmers may soon have access to insect-resistant GMO cowpeas—for free
Paul McDivitt | Genetic Literacy Project | January 23, 2018
A project begun nearly 15 years ago is finally coming to fruition, as Nigeria is poised to become the first country to release a genetically modified variety of insect-resistant cowpeas to farmers.
“The cowpea growers have been very supportive. They like the GM crop. They have seen it perform and they are ready to grow it,” Issoufou Kollo Abdourhamane, the project’s manager at the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), told me.
Cowpeas, known as black-eyed peas in the United States, are a key source of protein for over 200 million people, mostly in West Africa. However, the destructive pod borer insect can cause yield losses of up to 80 percent, and conventional breeding methods have been unable to help.
The GMO crop has shown strong resistance to the pest in field trials so far. Scientists used genetic engineering to insert a single gene from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a soil bacterium commonly used as an approved natural insecticide and sprayed on crops by organic farmers.
Several crops now utilize the Bt technology to protect against insects, including corn and soybeans in the US, cotton in the US and India, and eggplant in Bangladesh. Monsanto developed the first Bt crop, corn, in 1996. Today, over 75 percent of the corn grown in the US is Bt.
The intellectual property for the Bt gene was provided by Monsanto to the project royalty-free. This, along with initial funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and sustained funding for the past decade from the US government’s Agency for International Development (USAID), will allow the seeds to be distributed to farmers at no cost. Monsanto has also provided Bt traits royalty-free for other development projects, such as eggplant in Bangladesh and corn in Africa.
Read more . . . Plagued by pest, African farmers may soon have access to insect-resistant GMO cowpeas—for free
The Truth about GMOs: good or bad?
In boon to poor farmers, Ghana poised to introduce GMO crops — Genetic Literacy Project