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SCIENTISTS DEMAND USE OF BIOTECH TO HELP FIGHT BANANA
DISEASE
Banana wilt disease is threatening to wipe out Uganda's
banana plantations unless urgent steps are taken to
contain the situation. Participants to a symposium
organized by the country's National Agricultural
Research Organization (NARO) in Entebbe were told that
the disease has destroyed plantations in 21 out of 56
districts and that it
was spreading fast.Consequently, the 300 participants
representing various banana stakeholders urged the
government to speed up the process of passing the
biosafety
law so that the country can benefit from biotechnology
to help solve the problem. Dr Otim Nape, the director
general of NARO, said the wilt menace presents a clear
and present danger to the country's food security. Over
65% of Ugandans depend on banana for their staple food.
The country has put 1.5 million hectares of land
under the crop, producing an estimated 8.5 million tons
of bananas annually, and accounting for 15 % of the
world's total output. Ogenga Latigo, a member of the
parliament's Agriculture Committee, told the audience
that he would ask parliament to debate on the biosafety
draft bill. / Kenya Biotechnology Information Center For
more of the Kenya Biotechnology Center, visit
http://www.isaaa-africenter.org.
THERON: ENCOURAGE NOT STOP GM POTATO RESEARCH IN AFRICA
Potatoes South Africa, the representative organization
of South Africa's potato producers, supports the use of
modern biotechnology to improve the production of
potatoes in South Africa provided it is done in a safe,
responsible and ethical manner. Dr. DJ Theron, chief
executive officer, Potatoes South Africa, Pretoria, made
this clarification in the light of some groups to derail
the efforts by the Agricultural Research Council and
Michigan State University to develop a potato variety
that is
resistant to tuber moth, a major pest of potatoes in
South Africa. Theron noted that the development of a GM
potato should be allowed to proceed, subject to
objective
and scientific evaluation as provided for by current
legislation rather than be thwarted by speculation and
misleading information. He said that both farmers and
consumers will benefit from the technology by reducing
production costs, particularly pesticide application,
thus resulting in less environmental pollution and lower
pesticide residues.
Theron said that Potatoes South Africa will not support
the production or sale of any genetically modified
potato unless it has passed all official and legal
requirements
for general release. He added that no GM potatoes are
grown commercially or marketed in the country at
present. For more of Theron's views, see
http://www.pretorianews.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=667&fArticleId=2199185
Growing Biodiversity
(SRC:Nature -- ATH:Stuart Pimm)
This article reviews "Farmers' Bounty: Locating Crop
Diversity in the Contemporary World," a new book by
Stephen B. Brush, professor of Human and Community
Development at the University of California, Davis. In
what the review article calls "a forceful conclusion,"
Brush argues that increasing ownership of crop
biodiversity will abuse the rights of people who have
long had access to a common pool of genetic resources
and who now find themselves excluded. He asserts that
although
fears of "biopiracy" have led many tropical countries to
restrict access to their genetic resources, it is often
the poorer countries that benefit most from the free
exchange of
crop biodiversity. Vietnam, for instance, obtains
almost all of its rice from lines developed from the
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), compared
with just a
sixth for the U.S. Brush also suggests that "outright
protections," such as Ethiopia's ban on the export of
coffee plants, could be damaging for all parties
involved.
Major coffee producers such as Colombia and Costa Rica
have a narrow "genetic base" to their crops, and Brush
says that diseases could place them at Ethiopia's
mercy. He says that mutual retaliatory actions between
these countries would surely cause widespread harm.
Miracle' Moss To Give Up
Its Secrets
(SRC:University of Leeds -- ATH:n/a)
An new international project to determine the genomic
sequence of Physcomitrella patens, a fast-growing moss
native to the U.K., could help investigators explain why
some varieties of moss can survive extreme conditions.
Researcher David Cove of the University of Leeds in the
U.K. explains: "Mosses were among the first plants
to colonise the land, 450 million years ago. They can do
many of the things that the flowering plants have
forgotten. Some of their 'primitive' traits - like the
ability to survive extremes of dehydration - would be
useful in modern crops . . . By studying the genes
controlling these traits in the moss, we should be able
to identify how
these characteristics could be re-awoken in flowering
plants." The project will allow researchers to compare
the genomes of simple and complex plants for the first
time, Cove says. The genome sequencing project is a
collaborative effort between David Cove and his research
team at the University of Leeds, Ralph Quatrano of
Washington University St. Louis, Brent Mishler at the
University of California, Berkeley, and the U.S.
Department of Energy, which will carry out the actual
sequencing of the Physcomitrella genome. The article
can be viewed online at the link below.
http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=8448&start=1&control=223&page_start=1&page_nr=101&pg=1
Biotech Events
September 12
- 15
ABIC 2004: AgBiotech
Goes into Europe, Cologne
Contact:
Ag-West Biotech Inc. 101 - 111 Research Drive, Saskatoon
SK S7N 3R2 Canada; Tel: +1 (306) 975 1939; Fax: +1 (306)
975 1966;
Email:
abicfoundation@abic.ca;
URL:
http://www.abic2004.org/
October 17
- 22
12th International
Biotechnology Symposium,
Santiago, Chile
Contact:
Comision Nacional de Investigaciَn
Cientيfica y Tecnolَgica
(National Council for Research in Science and
Technology)
Email:
IBS2004@conicyt.cl;
URL:
http://www.conicyt.cl/IBS2004/index.html |
