Molecular biologist Steven Runo once thought that his team would make history as the first to plant gene-edited seeds in African soil. The competition turned out to be stiffer than he’d anticipated.
A research group working on maize “beat us by two or three months”, says Runo, who works at Kenyatta University in Nairobi and whose gene-editing project focuses on sorghum. “But that’s good — African countries will see that this is actually possible.”
The friendly rivalry is a sign of progress. Researchers have long hoped that the relative ease and low cost of CRISPR gene-editing systems would make it possible for scientists in low- and middle-income countries to produce crops with traits tailored to the needs of local farmers — rather than relying on seeds developed in foreign countries. Now scientists are overseeing at least a dozen efforts to develop such gene-edited crops.
Runo says the farmers he has spoken to feel more comfortable with crops developed by a local researcher than with seeds developed abroad. “This is not a multinational company. The people using the technology are people you have grown up with,” he says. “The narrative is very different.”
