Africa
CRISPR could save banana, major food source for 500 million people, from deadly disease, climate change
CRISPR/Cas9‐based genome editing is offering new hope for protecting a critical food security crop by developing climate-smart banana varieties. Research ...
Viewpoint: Ghana’s anti-GMO groups urged to embrace gene editing technology
Scientists are urging Ghana’s anti-GMO groups to embrace gene editing technology to help ensure a more effective and productive agricultural ...
Viewpoint: ‘Naïve’ calls for glyphosate ban threaten higher food prices, resurgence of more toxic pesticides
The unintended consequences of glyphosate bans are many and potentially severe ...
Plant hormones help battle purple witchweed, major threat to sub-Saharan Africa’s staple crops
Striga hermonthica, also known as purple witchweed, is an invasive parasitic plant threatening sub-Saharan Africa's food production. Striga infects the region's staple ...
Declining diversity of sorghum, world’s fifth most important cereal crop, could threaten Africa’s food security
The diversity of the crop Sorghum, a cereal used to make alcoholic drinks, has been decreasing over time due to ...
Royalty-free seeds, mobile devices help African farmers boost crop yields despite drought
As our global population continues to grow and the climate becomes hotter and drier and resources become scarcer.... we need ...
Africa edging toward greater acceptance of genetically engineered crops
Many African nations are increasingly listening to the scientific community rather than vocal opponents of GMOs ...
Viewpoint: Drought-tolerant crops could help Africa prevent $372 billion in lost crop yields
Drought, a period of inadequate rain or no rainfall, is the main cause of crop yield loss in Africa, ultimately ...
Did medieval Black Death reach as far as sub-Saharan Africa?
[S]ome researchers point to new evidence from archaeology, history, and genetics to argue that the Black Death likely did sow ...
African biotech group to critics: Where’s evidence GMOs are dangerous?
Mr Enoch Ilori, the Project Officer for Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB), has said there is no ...
Uganda’s GMO bill could become law without President’s assent
After more than a decade of deliberations, a bill that governs the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Uganda ...
Viewpoint: Agroecology is a ‘dead end’ for African farmers trying to achieve food security
For the past 50 years, Daisy Namusoke has grown crops on her small plot of land in the Buikwe District ...
How genetically engineered crops can boost Africa’s fight against malnutrition
Engineered crops can provide the long-sought breakthrough in food security for Africa ...
African biotech scientist challenges activist opposition to Bt pest-resistant cowpea, Nigeria’s first GMO crop
Cowpea is one of the most important indigenous African legumes in Nigeria due to its ability to grow in drought-prone ...
Uganda GMO banana research progresses despite legal uncertainty
The Ugandan researchers who have been working since 2005 to breed more nutritious bananas say their progress won’t be hindered ...
Zambia lifts ban on GMO imports, says biotech crops are safe to consume
Health Minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya says Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) food stuffs have been found not to affect the health ...
Nigera’s approval of GMO cowpea signals Africa’s willingness to embrace biotech crops
Nigeria is on the path to becoming the first country to cultivate biotech cowpea after the country’s biosafety agency granted ...
Gene-edited disease-resistant animals could reduce poverty in Africa’s most vulnerable communities
A researcher in Edinburgh is leading efforts to develop gene-edited farm animals for poor farmers in Africa. Prof Appolinaire Djikeng ...
Ancient African DNA reveals insights before slavery, colonialism
[B]ones between 5,000 and 15,000 years old — surrounding the start of the Holocene, our current geologic epoch — can ...
Kenya’s support for GMO crops likely to influence East Africa
For nearly 20 years, Kenya has attempted to adopt the better-yielding and disease- and drought-tolerant crop varieties bred through genetic ...
CRISPR used to fight virus hiding inside banana genome
Genome editing has been used to destroy a virus that lurks inside many of the bananas grown in Africa. Other ...
Researchers to begin rolling out disease-resistant, heat-tolerant grains to African farmers
There are four million people with limited access to food in Chad, which ranks as second hungriest of the 119 ...
Biofortified cassava could help fight anemia, which impacts 75% of preschool children in Nigeria
The “hidden hunger” caused by micronutrient deficiency is a global threat to human health, with particularly severe impacts in Africa ...
High expectations for GMO rice research in Ghana
Both farmers and the Ghanaian scientists now conducting field trials of genetically modified (GM) rice believe the improved variety will ...
Viewpoint: As most of Africa ‘dilly-dallied,’ Sudan, South Africa boosted food production with biotech crops
Why are South Africa and Sudan ahead of every other country on the continent when it comes to biotech?....The nations ...
Disease-resistant cassava could help safeguard against starvation in developing countries
[Ismail] Rabbi, a geneticist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria, and his colleagues are on ...
Africa could miss the ‘gene revolution’ if it fails to embrace crop biotech, experts say
Africa can’t afford to be left behind as the gene revolution transforms modern farming, African agricultural experts say. This is ...
