Biotech Updates

Crop biotechnology has significantly reduced agriculture's environmental impact and stimulated economic growth over the last 20 years of use, according to the new report of PG Economics. The peer-reviewed report GM Crops: Global Socio-economic and Environmental impacts 1996-2015 authored by Graham Brookes and Peter Barfoot also presents the contribution of biotechnology in preserving the earth's natural resources while allowing farmers to grow more, high quality crops.

India's National Academy of Agricultural Sciences Endorses Commercial Release of GM Mustard

India's National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) unanimously endorses the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) mustard (Brassica juncea) developed by the University of Delhi during its 24^th Annual General Meeting held in New Delhi on June 4-5, 2017. The academy, a body comprising of leading agricultural scientists, submitted a resolution on GM mustard to the Prime Minister of India seeking his intervention to hasten the approval process for GM mustard so that farmers can grow it in the forthcoming Rabi 2017 season. GM mustard technology and Dhara Mustard Hybrid (DMH-11) are the first barnase-barstar based hybrid that yields 20-30% more than existing varieties, allows the breeders to develop better mustard hybrids in the future, and would allow farmers to access the variety at low cost.

Tanzanian Farmers Urge Gov't to Hasten Delivery of GE Crops

Farmers in Mwanza Province, North Eastern Tanzania have urged their government to hasten delivery of biotech crops, which they say, may save them from crop failure. The maize, cassava, and cotton farmers whose crop has been severely affected by stalk borer pests, cassava mosaic disease and African cotton bollworm respectively, said that they had applied chemical and cultural control methods against the pests and diseases with little success over the years.

Nagoya University Develops Highly Efficient CRISPR-Cas9 Vector for Arabidopsis

The CRISPR-Cas9 system has been widely used as a tool for genome engineering in various organisms. While some vectors for CRISPR-Cas9 in plants have been reported, there are still issues on low efficiency.