Biotech Updates

Cuba to Plant GM Soybean and Corn in Spring 2017

January 11, 2017

Cuba could start planting biotech soybean and corn on more land by spring of 2017, according to Mario Estrada, director of the Center for Agricultural Research of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB). Estrada said that all tests required by Cuban regulatory bodies have been successfully completed.

"We are currently working on obtaining new transgenic maize lines, which on a small experimental plot scale show potential yields of nine tonnes/ha, well close to the levels reached by the world's leading countries in this production," Estrada said. He also explained that Cuba also experimented with a herbicide resistant biotech soybean, which has a yield of up to 2.8 tons/ha in field trials.

Read more at the Genetic Literacy Project website.