Biotech Updates

Drought-Resistant Maize Trials to Start Soon in SA

October 31, 2007

Trials for Monsanto’s new drought-resistant maize varieties will start next month in in South Africa. The maize lines have been genetically modified to express the "water-use efficiency" genes. Monsanto has been granted permission to start testing the new varieties in an experimental field near Malelane in Mpumalangaa. If the trials will prove to be successful, the drought-tolerance gene will also be bred into soybean and cotton lines. The company estimated that about 60 percent of all maize sold in South Africa is genetically modified. Their projections show that this will shoot up to 75 percent.

Read more at http://www.africabio.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1193646181,67508,