Biotech Updates

Quality Seeds for Farmers in Burkina Faso

July 2, 2010

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is providing quality seeds to 100,000 poor farmers in Burkina Faso in time for the coming planting season. FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System notes that more than 10 million people face hunger in parts of the Sahel. Cereal production decreased in 2009 due to drought.

The European Union-funded project hopes to contribute to food production by making improved seeds available to farmers and to promote sustainable seed multiplication and certification. Some 900 seed producers in irrigated areas in southern Burkina Faso are also being supported. "Areas with high production levels can compensate for areas which don't produce as much, which lack seeds, and which face food insecurity," says FAO's Emergency Coordinator in Burkina Faso, Jean-Pierre Renson Renson. "So part of the production goes to the high risk areas to fill the deficit."

The FAO media release is at
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/43137/icode/.