Archive for November 2018

Genetic engineering and integrated pest management prove useful in eradicating dangerous agricultural pest. Growers and industry leaders across the cotton belt, particularly those in California and Arizona, rightly hailed the announced eradication of an invasive pest that once threatened to wipe out the U.S. cotton industry. Eliminating the pink bollworm (PBW) from cotton fields is…

Tomatoes could benefit from a review to gene-editing policy, as it would be easier for British growers to produce good-tasting, low-cost tomatoes if there were better varieties available Last summer, the European Court of Justice ruled that ’genome edited’ crops should be categorised as genetically modified organisms (GMOs), meaning huge costs for licensing and trials. This…

Growers say the glyphosate-tolerant varieties have eased crop management and reduced crop’s environmental impact Alberta sugar beet growers embraced glyphosate-tolerant varieties when they first became available about 10 years ago. They’ve never looked back. The technology has revolutionized crop management and growers say it has also reduced the environmental impact of producing the labour-intensive crop.…

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has instructed the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Trade, Industry and Cooperatives to explore the possibility of farming Bt cotton to revitalize the country’s cotton sub-sector. In his Heroes’ Day address to the nation, President Kenyatta directed the three ministries to work together and come up with a quick mechanism to…

The Government of Indonesia has approved the first genetically modified crop which will soon be commercialized in the country.  The biotech sugarcane event NXI-4T which contains betaine gene was developed by the state-owned sugar company, PT Perkebunan Nusantara XI (PTPN XI). The gene expressed osmoprotectant compound which was introduced using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated plant transformation.  The…

Americans may soon be eating cotton for the first time — not just wearing it — as a new edible variety is poised to enter the market. On [October 16], the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the green light to commercialize a biotech version of the cotton plant whose seeds can be eaten, according to Texas A&M…