“Following the successful completion of all tests required by the Cuban regulatory bodies, we could start planting transgenic corn and soybeans on more land in spring of 2017, ” said Mario Estrada, director of the Center for Agricultural Research Of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).
Cuba hopes to find a “safe and controlled” way to decrease imports of these two cereals, which totaled more than $500 million in 2014, Estada told the official daily Granma. The island invests each year about 2 billion dollars in importing about 75% of what Cubans eat, because their production is insufficient 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. Cuba also experimented “with a transgenic soy resistant to herbicides, which in trials by the company Cubasoy showed a yield of up to 2.8 tons / ha, much higher than the usual ones reached there,” [Estada] explained.
Related on the SLP
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: Cuba to begin transgenic corn and soybean crops in 2017
Read full post in original Spanish: Cuba comenzará cultivos transgénicos de maíz y soya en 2017
