Ethiopia: GMO potato researchers left twiddling thumbs amid USAID fund cutoff

Published 2024년 2월 3일

Tridge summary

A project to develop a late-blight resistant potato in Ethiopia has lost its funding due to the US government's suspension of non-humanitarian aid to the country. The project, which had received a USD 13 million grant from USAID, has had its funding re-allocated to Kenyan researchers. Meanwhile, Ethiopia's main tissue culture laboratory is testing GMO Enset, following a 2015 proclamation that allowed GMO cultivation in the country. So far, only GMO cotton has been approved for commercial use.

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Original content

Researchers are left in limbo as they await funding for a genetically modified potato project that lost its financing as part of the US government's suspension of non-humanitarian aid to Ethiopia. The National Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center (NABRC) working with researchers at Michigan State University won a USD 13 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a project in 2021. The project was intended to create a late-blight resistant potato for agricultural production using genes from a wild species of potato. The genetically modified organism (GMO) project is headed by Tadesse Daba (PhD), country coordinator at Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology at NABRC. "The only thing left was signing an agreement and to begin testing in a confined trial farming area," he told The Reporter. "But war broke out in northern Ethiopia and our research was cut off." The US government announced the suspension of all non-humanitarian aid to ...

Source: All Africa