Biotech Updates

Uganda One Step Closer to Disease Resistant Cassava

January 9, 2009

Uganda’s Namulonge Crops Resource Research Institute (NaCRRI) has completed green house experiments on disease-resistant and high yielding GM cassava varieties, according to a report by the New Vision. NaCRRI now seeks permission from the National Biosafety Committee to transfer the GM plants from the laboratory to the field. The transgenic varieties are resistant to the cassava mosaic virus (CMV) and the brown streak virus (BSV), important constraints affecting cassava production not only in Uganda but in the whole of Africa. If approved, the Institute will have the first genetically modified cassava in the field.

A modern cassava transformation laboratory has recently been constructed at NaCRRI through the support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The full article is available at http://allafrica.com/stories/200901070050.html