Tanzania's First GMO Drought-Resistant Crop to be Harvested 'Imminently'
Tanzania’s first-ever genetically modified crop — a field trial of drought-tolerant maize intended to benefit small-scale farmers suffering the effects of climate change — is proceeding well and will be harvested imminently, according to scientists overseeing the trial for the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project.
[Dr. Alois Kullaya, technical advisor to the WEMA project in Tanzania, is] confident the added drought gene will perform as intended. However, he cautioned that a definitive conclusion will need to await scientific data produced by the trial.
[The researchers] expect the overall yield to be higher from plants with the drought-tolerant gene than those without the added trait.
Rich Renomeron