Global ICRISAT, UNIV FLORIDA LAUNCH PARTNERSHIP
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics (ICRISAT) and the University of Florida (UFl) at
Gainesville, Florida have launched a partnership with a short
course on applications of Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) in land resource management. The course is designed
for practicing professionals, extension officers, and students
in developing countries, and is part of a series that will
allow participants to accumulate credits at their own pace,
for fees that are affordable in their respective national
currencies.
The partnership aims to develop collaborative educational
programs , which will cover activities such as watershed
management, ground water remediation technologies, integrated
pest management; agricultural communication, agribusiness,
techniques in molecular biology and bioremediation.
For more information on the courses, contact Dr. V Balaji
at v.Balaji@cgiar.org, S Gopikrishna Warrier at w.gopikrishna@cgiar.org.
Visit ICRISAT at http://www.icrisat.org.
BRAZIL,
BOTSWANA SIGN ACCORD FOR TECH TRANSFER
The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA)
signed this week an accord with the government of the Republic
of Botswana for a five year initiative aimed at the transfer
of technology and the training of experts in the African
nation. The transfer of technology will focus on two main
areas: cattle husbandry and agricultural production in very
arid areas, which comprise a large proportion of the territory
of Botswana, located in the proximity to the desert of Kalahari.
The calendar of training courses for Botswana scientists
is currently being drafted.
Read more at: http://www.embrapa.br/noticias/
banco_de_noticias/folder.2006/agosto/foldernoticia.2006-08-01.
1366936549/noticia.2006-08-23.0189333440/mostra_noticia
Africa
NEW NERICA INTRODUCED
According to Kenya’s The East African,
a new high-yielding NERICA (New Rices for Africa) Rice
variety has been introduced
to the country, and is likely to turn Kenya into a leading
rice exporter. The variety, a cross-breed between an African
and Asian rice species, withstands pests and diseases unlike
the commonly grown Basmati and Sindano varieties. Basmati
and Sindano, moreover, thrive well under flood irrigation,
while the new NERICA can grow on dry land.
The new variety was first developed in West Africa by the
Africa Rice Center (WARDA). Experts predict that the NERICA
will boost rice production from the current 70,000 tonnes,
and save the country up to Ksh7 billion ($97.2 million) that
is used in importing the deficit.
For the complete story, read http://allafrica.com/stories/
200608220095.html.
Visit WARDA at http://www.warda.org.
AIDS,
HUNGER CONNECTED, EXPERTS WARN
AIDS is part of a vicious cycle that drains families of
their financial resources, as well as the labor communities
need to grow food. This was the conclusion of a study of
15,900 households in southern Africa, presented by Robin
Jackson of the World Food Program at the AIDS 2006 conference
in Toronto, Canada.
Other experts presented similar findings on the subject
of AIDS and hunger. According to Stuart Gillespie of the
International Food Policy Research Institute, food insecurity
not only creates greater biological susceptibility to HIV
by weakening the immune system, but encourages people to
move to higher prevalence areas in order to earn money.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been running
agricultural training programmers for AIDS orphans who have
missed the opportunity of learning these skills from their
parents. The goal is to move from short-term interventions,
such as the distribution of food aid or nutritional supplements,
to helping affected communities restore agricultural production
and develop alternative livelihoods.
Read the complete article at http://www.irinnews.org/
AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6279&SelectRegion=Africa&
SelectCountry=AFRICA.
MALAWI
TO FORMULATE NATIONAL BIOTECH POLICY
According to the African News Dimension,
Malawi is in the process of formulating its own national
biotechnology policy,
as “it is imperative for Malawi as a developing nation
to put much emphasis on biotechnology research and development.” This
was stated by Patrick Kachimera, Malawi's secretary for science
and technology, as he spoke before a recently concluded meeting
for stakeholders.
According to Kachimera, a policy is already
under development. He reiterated that the government wants
to ensure that all
caution is exercised, and that biosafety will be given utmost
consideration. Malawi’s National Research Council is
in the process of drafting the policy, which will regulate
the use, importation, export, and research on biotechnology
in the country.
Subscribers
to the African News Dimension can read the article at http://science.andnetwork.com/index;jsessionid=
B372CFF8FF0E2DBB7E3DF9601CEAB18E?service=direct/1/Home/
story&sp=l49481.
Visit the National Research Council of Malawi at http://www.nrcm.org.mw.
IITA
HOSTS WORKSHOP ON PUBLIC AWARENESS OF BIOTECH
A one-day public awareness workshop on biotechnology was
held recently in Ibadan, Nigeria. The workshop was aimed
at disseminating biotechnology-related information to a broad
range of stakeholders, including farmers, public officers,
and the media. The event was organized by the International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and was attended
by over 100 people.
Professor J. D. Amin, Vice Chancellor of the University
of Maiduguri, said that the University has established a
Biotechnology Center, which would be a center of excellence
for the northeast zone of the country. Another speaker at
the workshop, Dr. Christian Fatokun, said that research is
advancing Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD)-resistant cassava,
and pest-resistant cowpea. Other speakers, such as Professor
Babatunde Solomon, Director General of the National Biotechnology
Development Agency (NABDA), and Dr. Danaladi Kuta of the
Sheda Science and Technology Complex (SHESTCO) highlighted
the importance of biotechnology in producing better crops
and higher yields.
For more information, contact Taye Babaleye, Public Relations
Manager, at t.babaleye@cgiar.org. Read more about IITA at
http://www.iita.org.
The Americas
GM RICE SAFE, USDA SAYS
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have declared that there
are no human health, food safety, or environmental concerns
associated with the biotech rice reportedly found in rice
shipments. This follows an announcement made recently by
Bayer CropScience, which stated that the company detected
trace amounts of LLRICE 601, a regulated biotech rice line,
in samples taken from commercial long grain rice.
After reviewing all available scientific data, both the
USDA and FDA have concluded that two deregulated rice lines,
LLRICE 62 and LLRICE 06, have been through thorough safety
evaluations and have been deemed safe for use in food and
safe in the environment, although these lines have not been
commercialized. The presence of the biotech rice, therefore,
should pose no safety concerns.
The USDA is now in the process of validating a test to provide
the marketplace with a tool to detect the presence of the
Liberty Link protein in rice. As the biotech rice in question
was regulated, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS) is conducting an investigation to determine
the circumstances surrounding the release and whether any
violations of USDA regulations occurred.
Read the complete press release at http://www.usda.gov/
wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=
true&contentid=2006/08/0306.xml.
More information on biotechnology and the USDA regulation
of biotechnology can be found at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/
biotechnology/index.shtml
USDA ANNOUNCES PCN SURVEY FUND
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will
provide about US$13 million in emergency funding to support
survey efforts of the potato cyst nematode (PCN). This
was announced by USDA secretary Mike Johanns as he delivered
his remarks to the recent World Potato Congress.
PCN is a major pest of potato crops grown in cool-temperate
areas, and affects other plants in the potato family, including
tomatoes and eggplants. If left unmanaged, PCN can cause
significant yield loss.
Read the complete press release at http://www.usda.gov/
wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&
contentid=2006/08/0312.xml.
BIOTECH
MAIZE APPROVED FOR SONORA, MEXICO
César Salazar Platt, the Agriculture Undersecretary
of the state of Sonora, Mexico, has announced that permits
allowing the commercial planting of biotech maize are being
granted in the state of Sonora, Mexico. “We can’t
fight against technology, if we want to continue planting
maize in Sonora and be competitive, we must face new avenues
with the required cautions and considerations” said
Salazar Platt. The use of transgenic seeds allows farmers
to obtain increased production with a 30% reduction in costs,
mainly due to the reduced used of agrochemicals, thereby
allowing farmers of the region to compete with other states
and nations that have already adopted the technology, added
Salazar Platt. Furthermore, transgenic varieties also promote
a more efficient use of water.
The government official also said that the required trials
to ascertain the performance of the approved biotech varieties
had been carried out.
More
information in: http://www.agronet.com.mx/cgi/notes.cgi?
Action=Viewhistory&Note=6&Type=R&Datemin=2006-08-01
%2000:00:00&Datemax=2006-08-31%2023:59:59
Asia
VIETNAM TO DEVELOP BIO-FUELS
Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry is devising a scheme
to develop the country’s biofuel industry from 2006
onwards. Under the scheme, Vietnam will develop the technology
to manufacture biofuels from 2006-2010. From 2011-2015, the
country will expand the production scale and distribution
network to serve the transport and industry sectors, and
diversify the sources of materials for biofuel production.
By 2020, biofuel production targets should be reached, and
the country should be producing 5 billion liters of E10 petroleum
(10% ethanol in a petroleum mix) and 500 million liters of
biodiesel (5-30% DO oil in a diesel mix) each year.
With reports from VNA and Vietnam Net. For more news from
Vietnam, email Le Hien of BiotechVn at lehien@agbiotech.com.vn.
NEW
BIOTECH CROPS APPROVED FOR PHILIPPINES
The Philippine Department of Agriculture’s Bureau
of Plant Industry (DA-BPI) has approved three new transformation
events for food and/or feed use in the Philippines. These
include: Monsanto’s glyphosate-tolerant alfalfa varieties,
J101 and J63; Pioneer’s rootworm-protected corn DAS
59122-7; and Monsanto’s stacked high lysine, insect-protected
corn, LY038 x Corn MON810.
DA-BPI has approved a total of 25 transformation events
to date. Read the news release at http://www.seedquest.com/
News/releases/2006/august/16654.htm.
Visit the BPI at http://www.bpi.da.gov.ph/.
KOREA
APPROVES GM CANOLA FOR FOOD
Biotech canola modified to tolerate herbicides has been
cleared for food use in the Republic of Korea. An application
for the crop, lodged by Monsanto, Korea Inc., was approved
recently. Read more at http://bch.biodiv.org/database/
record.shtml?id=9355.
JORDAN
DISCUSSES BIOTECH CROPS AND BIOSAFETY
“Jordan is open to discuss the new technologies” said
Rady El-Tarawna, Director General of Jordanian Ministry of
Agriculture, “we should transparently raise the issues
related to the safety and risk of GM food”, he said.
El-Tarawna also stated that the country has the capacity
to lead countries in the West Asian Region in the adoption
of biotech crops. This was stated in the first International
Conference on the Biosafety of GM Food in Jordan, which took
place in Amman on 21-22 August. The event is part of a continuing
effort towards the modernization of the agricultural sector
in Jordan. The meeting was attended by government officials,
members of the private sector, NGOs, as well as by country
representatives of Egypt, Iraq and South Africa.
Khalid Magaly, from the Jordanian Ministry
of Environment, added that “Jordan had signed and ratified the Cartagena
Protocol, and has adopted the proper legislations related
to the trade of genetically modified food”. Participants
expressed the need for more informative conferences and workshops
to openly discuss the GM food issues, and the necessity to
raise public awareness on the subject.
For more information, contact Ismail AbdelHamid, Director,
of Egypt Biotechnology Information Center at: iamaeg@yahoo.com.
Europe
EC REQUIRES CERTIFICATE FOR US RICE IMPORTS
Following the announcement that genetically modified (GM)
rice has been found in shipments of long grain rice in the
USA, the European Commission (EC) has adopted a decision
requiring long grain rice imports from the USA to be certified
as free from the unauthorized GMO LL Rice 601. The measures
are effective immediately, and are expected to be reviewed
after 6 months.
Under the measures, only consignments of
US long grain rice that have been tested by an accredited
laboratory, using
a validated testing method and accompanied by a certificate
assuring the absence of LL Rice 601, can enter the European
Union (EU). “We have strict legislation in place in
the EU to ensure that any GM product put on the European
market has undergone a thorough authorization procedure based
on scientific assessment,” says Markos Kyprianou, Commissioner
for Health and Consumer Protection, “EU consumers can
rely on the high level of protection that our GM rules afford
them.”
Read the complete press release at http://europa.eu.int/
rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1120&format=
HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en.
ARTICLE
EXPLORES POPLAR FOR BIOREMEDIATION
A German scientist is currently working on the poplar as
a bioremediator. Dr. Heinz Rennenberg successfully introduced
a bacterial gene into the poplar genome, allowing the plant
to resist environmental stress, and grow on soils loaded
with heavy metals. The biotech poplars can take up cadmium
and copper and transport the metal to their leaves. The remediation
potential of transgenic poplars is currently being investigated
on a former industrial site in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany and
in a former copper mine in Central Ural.
To read the article, as well as supplementary articles,
visit http://www.bio-pro.de/en/life/thema/02455/index.html.
PLANT
GENOME CHANGES PASS TO OFFSPRING IN NEW RESEARCH Plants cope with stress, such as pathogens and lack of soil
nutrients, by modifying their genome. For instance, when
faced with ultraviolet radiation, pieces of DNA are swapped
between similar genomic strands, perhaps in a bid to protect
the genome, and consequently, the plant, from UV damage.
In their latest research project, Jean Molinier and Barbara
Hohn of the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, Switzerland
show that the plant urge to make such genome modifications
can be passed down to offspring for as many as four generations.
In a report published in Nature online, researchers modified
Arabidopsis to produce blue spots if the DNA swapping occurred.
They then exposed the modified plants to UV light, or to
a fragment of a bacterial protein that would mimic a bacterial
infection. Stressed plants showed 2-4 fold higher levels
of recombination than unstressed ones, and the urge to recombine
was passed four generations down the line.
According to plant geneticist Avraham Levy
of the Weizman Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel,
the findings add “a
twist to natural selection.” “Contrary to the
view that selection only works on the DNA sequence, the study
shows that the environment can induce genetic as well as
epigenetic changes, some of which may end up being selected,” Dr.
Weizman says.
Read
the complete article at http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/807/2.
NOVEL CONSTRUCTION METHOD IN VECTOR HELPS IN BRASSICA INSECT
RESISTANCE
Sporamin is a storage protein abundant in
sweet potato root. Over-expression of it, scientists have
found, could confer
insect resistance to transgenic plants. To promote consistent
expression of sporamin, Huai-Ju Chena and colleagues of the
National Taiwan University engineered Brassica plants with
a combination of a wound-responsive promoter (Pspoa) and
a matrix-attached-region-like DNA segment (spoMAR) to drive
sporamin expression. This “New gene construction strategy
in T-DNA vector to enhance expression level of sweet potato
sporamin and insect resistance in transgenic Brassica
oleracea” is
reported in the latest issue of Plant Science.
Researchers transformed Brassica
oleracea seeds with the
novel gene construct, and conducted activity assays, gene
analyses, and insect bioassays on the transgenic plants with
larvae of maize cutworm (Helicoverpa armigera Hubner). The
researchers found that the transgenic plants with the novel
construct displayed the highest level and low variability
of sporamin expression, and the trait was stably inherited.
Transgenic plants were also insect resistant: the size of
sporamin-transgenic plant-fed larvae was smaller than that
of controls, and larvae had a consisted survival rate of
4%. Transgenic plants with sporamin under control of a CaMV35S
promoter construct, in contrast, showed marked variability
in insect resistance. The results show that the construct
can be efficient for high transgene expression in plants,
as well as in obtaining inherently stable transformants in
consecutive progenies.
Subscribers to the journal can read the complete article
at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2006.04.003
PLANT
BREEDING SCHOLARSHIP OFFERED The African Center for Crop Improvement at
the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South
Africa offers scholarships
to young African scientists who are keen to make Plant Breeding
their career. The aim of the ACCI is to train African plant
breeders in African, on African crops. This involves 2 years
study at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and 3 years field
research in the students’ home countries at their home
institution. Applicants must have an MSc degree in plant
breeding, plant genetics, plant pathology, crop science or
horticultural science, and should come from Uganda, Kenya,
Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia or South Africa. For
more details on qualifications and application requirements,
visit http://www.acci.org.za. Closing date is August 30,
2006.
CROPPING
FELLOWSHIPS ANNOUNCED
The Bentley Cropping Systems Fellowship provides assistance
to Canadian and developing country graduate students with
a university degree in Agriculture, Forestry, or Biology,
who wish to undertake post-graduate, applied on-farm research
with cooperating farmers in a developing country. For more
information, visit http://www.gdnet.org/middle.php?oid=986.
ROCKEFELLER
TO GIVE TRAVEL GRANTS FOR CONFERENCE
The International Plant and Genome Conference XV will take
place January 13-17, 2007 in San Diego, USA. The Rockefeller
Foundation will support five scientists from Africa to attend
the event. For more information on the grant, contact Dr.
Katrien M. Devos, University of Georgia, Athens, USA, at
kdevos@uga.edu. Application deadline is September 10, 2006.
Other organizations offering travel grants can be viewed
through
http://www.intl-pag.org/15/15-grants.html. For the
full announcement of the conference, visit http://www.intl-pag.org.
CANADA
TO CELEBRATE BIOTECH WEEK
Canada
celebrates National Biotechnology Week from September 23-30,
2006. This week will highlight
the imagination and
innovation of Canadian scientists. Participants will take
part in career fairs, tour Canadian biotech companies, and
see how biotechnology is vital to the country’s future.
For more information, visit http://www.biotech.ca/imagenenation/
biotechincanada.html.
INTERNATIONAL
STRIGA SYMPOSIUM SLATED
“Integrating New Technologies for Striga Control:
Towards Ending the Witch-Hunt” will take place November
5-11, 2006 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Sponsored by the International
Sorghum and Millet Collaborative Research Support Program
(INTSORMIL), Purdue University, and the Ethiopian Institute
of Agricultural Research (EIAR), the international symposium
will bring together key leaders to initiate the discussion
of strategies that will result in better control of Striga.
The event is open to all scientists dealing with Striga;
interested parties are encouraged to present posters of their
most recent findings and observations.
For
more information, contact Gebisa Ejeta, Purdue University,
USA at gejeta@purdue.edu,
or visit http://www.agry.purdue.edu/strigaconference/.
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