“Following the successful completion of all tests required by the Cuban regulatory bodies, we could start planting transgenic cornย and soybeans on more land in spring of ย 2017, ” said Mario Estrada, director of the Center for Agricultural Research Of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).
Cuba hopes to find aย “safe and controlled” way to decrease imports of these twoย cereals,ย which totaled more than $500 million in 2014, Estada told the official daily Granma.ย The island invests each year about 2 billion dollars in importing about 75% of what Cubans eat, becauseย their production is insufficientย to feed 11.2 million people and nearly 4 million tourists.
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“We are currently working on obtaining new transgenic maize lines, which on a small experimental plot scale show potential yields of nine tonnes / ha, well close to the levels reached by the world’s leading countries in this production,” he said. Cubaย also experimented “with a transgenic soy resistant to herbicides, which in trials byย the company Cubasoy showed a yield of up to 2.8 tons / ha, much higher than the usual ones reached there,” [Estada]ย explained.
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The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full post translated by Google into English:ย Cuba to begin transgenic corn and soybean crops in 2017
Read full post in original Spanish:ย Cuba comenzarรก cultivos transgรฉnicos de maรญz y soya en 2017
