Ghana approves pest-resistant cowpea variety

Ghana announced that it has launched, for the first time on the market, a genetically modified food product, investing in biotechnology as a way of increasing the profitability of farmers in the country and ensuring greater food security. This is a pest-resistant variety of cowpea, which was developed to specifically resist Maruca vitrata, known as pod borer and which destroys legume production, explains the communication on the CiB website. According to the informative note, the commercial approval of the new cowpea variety, designated PBR, became possible thanks to its recent authorization for commercial production by the National Seed Council. The launch takes place after 12 years of regulatory, laboratory and field testing processes by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI), within the scope of the PBR Black-Eyed Bean Project. According to the CiB communication, this project is the result of a public-private ...