High-yielding GMO: Hope for Africa

The United States international plant breeder and African biologists have teamed up in the "African Sago Tree Improvement Project" , through the use of biological techniques to improve the quality of Sorghum trees in Africa.

This may be a hope to address the problem of nutritional deficiencies and poverty for the people of the continent.

Sorghum Since October 2005, Luke Mehlo, a molecular biologist from South Africa, has begun to study sorghum at a biology laboratory in Johnston, Iowa.

Normally, sorghum is used as animal feed, industrial raw material and food, this plant can not only tolerate natural drought conditions, but also contains a lot of vitamins and minerals. The nutrients of this plant have partly helped poor people survive through natural disasters.

Every year in Africa there are many starving people and about 300 million people live in drought-prone areas, they have to rely on sorghum and other crops as a source of food.

Traditional sorghum varieties have high drought tolerance but lack important nutritional elements.

Scientists hope to use good genes from other crops to improve the genes of sorghum plants, thereby making sorghum easier to digest and having more of the necessary substances for the body. such as Protein, amino acid, iron, zinc and various types of Vitamin A and E.

The general manager of the American Seed Company said that it would take another 8 years to introduce a transgenic sorghum variety to the market.

When sorghum plants are genetically modified successfully and commercialized, the company does not benefit directly, but the success of this project could open the door to the company for crops. Other gene transitions in countries are still skeptical about plant genetic engineering.

The main source of funding for this project is provided by partners of the National Institute of Health Research - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated 450 million USD in the hope of improving the nutritional composition of crops such as bananas, cassava, rice . Dupont is the only trading partner in this project of The international seed company also donated $ 4.8 million, providing human resources and equipment for scientists to work in Africa.

Researchers believe that sorghum has been fortified with nutrients that cannot completely solve the poverty problem of Africa, but at least help African people overcome a part. hard.

Tuyet Nhung