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Uganda: Sweet genes arm banana crops |
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Scientists in Uganda have developed GM bananas that show promising resistance to the deadly banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) disease.
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Kenya: 'Good' mould to the rescue |
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A deadly fungus that has blighted thousands of tonnes of maize in Kenya could be defeated by introducing a less dangerous cousin to crops while still in the field, say scientists.
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A Study on the Relevance of Chinese Agricultural Technologies to Smallholder Farmers in Africa
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| Agriculture Technology News |
- Kenyan president signs Biosafety Bill into law, Africa Science News Service
12 February 2009
Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki signed into law a national Biosafety Act on February 12. The law was passed by the Kenyan parliament in December 2008, after years of discussion. The article says that Kibaki's signature allows regulatory authorities in the country to being drawing up regulations for the implementation of the act. The article says that Kenyan research on genetically modified (GM) crops is the most advanced in east Africa.The article notes that the number of African countries growing GM crops rose from one in 2007 (South Africa) to three in 2008: South Africa, Burkina Faso (with Bt cotton), and Egypt (with Bt corn).
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- Kenya moves to GM solution under stress of famine, Sunday Monitor, Uganda
22 February 2009
Kenya became the fourth African country to allow the production and use of genetically modified (GM) crops after President Mwai Kibaki signed off on Parliament’s approval of new biosafety legislation last week (February 13). The Biosafety Bill 2008 sees the east African nation join Burkina Faso, Egypt and South Africa as African nations which permit genetically modified farming, following years of fine-tuning to the proposed regulations and mechanisms to monitor and regulate GM technology, and protect farmers and consumers.
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- Crop breeders on verge of beating Africa’s most noxious weed using cutting edge science technique, Africa Science News Service
6 August 2008
Every year the Striga weed attacks and kills Africa’s most important food crops in more than 40 million hectares of farmland often leaving farmers with no harvest. Agricultural researchers have successfully identified and transferred genes that confer resistance to Africa’s most deadly weed (Striga) using the novel marker assisted selection technique successfully for the first time in the history of crop breeding in Africa.
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- Farmers planting maize that poses threat to humans, Daily Nation
23 March 2008
Farmers in one of Kenya’s largest grain-producing areas have been cultivating genetically modified maize that is potentially harmful to human health without knowing it. The Sunday Nation can exclusively report that the relevant seeds are sourced from a South African company that is a subsidiary of Dupont, a leading US-based biotechnology firm. This was revealed to the Sunday Nation by officials of the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition (KBioC), a body that brings together 45 farmer groups, NGOs and civil society bodies.
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- Hardly any mixing between GM and conventional maize, Co-Extra Country News
12 June 2008
Hardly any mixing occurs between genetically modified (GM) and conventional maize when farmers consider the agreed isolations distances between the different parcels. That is the result of the field experiment that was conducted by Plant Research International of Wageningen University for the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture. The results show that the agreed isolation distances make sure that mixing due to pollen-mediated gene flow in maize stays far below the EU agreed 0.9% accidental GMO threshold.
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- Food crisis may open door to genetically modified rice, Agbios
4 June 2008
Some rice-producing nations may drop their reluctance to use genetically modified (GM) seeds in the next few years to help offset a crisis that has forced millions to go hungry, a top expert said. "If we consider the challenges that face us, I think we would be very foolish and actually irresponsible to not invest in the development of GM crops," said Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). "I think that governments will take a hard look and say why again are we dragging our feet in adopting GM technology,?" he told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
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- Could GM crops help feed Africa? BBC News
30 May 2008
If there is one place on earth where farmers have it hard, it is sub-Saharan Africa. Most people are farmers, but not for profit - to survive. Africa is the one continent that cannot feed itself. When you see children picking away at the arid, red, African soil with the most rudimentary tools, it is clear that African agriculture can use all the help it can get. But GM has for years been viewed with suspicion across the continent.
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- GM food: Monster or saviour? BBC News
29 May 2008
I have to confess, until now the whole debate about genetically-modified (GM) food has pretty much passed me by. Most of my career has been spent as a foreign correspondent. But last summer I returned to the UK to start a new job with the BBC. I now glory in the title Rural Affairs Correspondent.
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