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Researchers target orphan crops in EA food security drive
Cassava is among the crops that are pest resistant and drought tolerant, meaning farmers will no longer be dependent on rain-fed agriculture. Photo/FILE
Posted Tuesday, March 22 2011 at 00:00
Total land size for these is 148m hectares, representing 10 per cent of the 1.5 billion hectares of crop land in the world.
Soybean is the most dominantly cultivated GM crop globally, occupying 73.3 million hectares, equivalent to 50 per cent of total global GM land.
America is the world’s biggest GM crop cultivator with 66.8m hectares cultivated across eight GM crops.
This five year Bio Innovate initiative in East Africa is funded by the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) to the tune of $16m and is the first of its kind in Africa.
It will also help farmers to improve the processing of waste from sisal and coffee production, and safely treat waste water from leather tanneries and slaughterhouses.
Greatest challenges
Besides Kenya, other countries covered by the Bio Innovate project are Burundi, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda.
“Bio Innovate… is at the heart of the region’s greatest challenges — providing enough food in the face of climate change, diversifying crops and addressing productivity constraints… threatening the livelihoods of millions,” said Carlos Sere, ILRI’s director general.
Speaking during the launch of Bio Innovate at ILRI’s headquarters in Nairobi last week, programme manger Seyoum Leta said “we can help build a more productive and sustainable regional bio resources based economy.”
Leta noted the programme was key to pro-poor economic growth.
African Laughter
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