Cassava Crop Genetically Modified to Help 300 Million Africans

(swissinfo.ch, July 15, 2013)

Swiss researchers are ready to start field trials in Africa of a new genetically-modified, virus-resistant, strain of the plant Cassava, which will help over 300 million Africans. Cassava is vital source of food and commerce in Africa. The Cassava plant is susceptible to the devastating cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), but Hervé Vanderschuren of Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) proposes a measure to do field trials of the transgenic cassava which will teach best practices among farmers, while placing natural combatants such as mites that will fight the 'whitefly', a spreader of the cassava mosaic disease (CMD). The Global Cassava Partnership believes that “game-changing” technologies are needed, and that "this case is used for humanitarian purposes, not to make money or exploit people in any way. But there is no magic bullet and this is just one element in the roadmap.”