Biotech Updates

Adoption rates of the top five biotech crop-planting countries were close to 100% in 2018, according to the Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops in 2018. The report was released by the International Service of Acquisition on Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) on August 22, 2019 during a seminar in Tokyo, Japan, attended by 90 stakeholders. The U.S., Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and India, which have gained enormous benefits from planting GM crops over the years, continue to adopt GM crops to meet the challenges of increased population and climate change.

GM Crop Adoption Continues to Move Forward in Africa

Africa continues to make steady progress in the adoption of biotech crops with Nigeria becoming the first country in the world to approve biotech cowpea, thus, adding a new biotech crop to the global biotech basket, according to ISAAA's latest report, Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops in 2018. The Kingdom of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) joined South Africa and Sudan in planting biotech crops in Africa, with commercial planting of insect resistant (IR) Bt cotton. Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Malawi granted approvals for planting biotech cotton as proof that Africa is ready for biotech crop adoption.

Mainland South Australia to Lift GMO Ban

The State Government of South Australia (SA) will lift the moratorium on growing genetically modified (GM) food crops in mainland SA. This comes after a high-level independent review of the moratorium made in 2018 by Australian economist Professor Kym Anderson of the University of Adelaide.

Rain-resistant Wheat Developed Using Genome Editing

Researchers have developed a rain-resistant wheat variety using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. This breakthrough could lead to the development of better-quality flour. The study was published in Cell Reports.