Brazil has approved the cultivation and sale of drought-tolerant GM wheat, a major boost for the once taboo crop as global food supply fears and regional dry weather burnishes the lure of GMO. The approval, which biosecurity agency CTNbio posted, makes Brazil the second nation after Argentina to approve Bioceres’ HB4 wheat strain for cultivation. Other markets have approved it for consumption… While the green-light does not mean Brazil will necessarily grow GMO wheat for production soon, it reflects a major shift in attitudes as climate change and the war in Ukraine sharpen worries over a global food crisis.
Archive for March, 2023
INT - Iron Boosts Rice Immune System
01 March 2023 – ISAAA Crop Biotech Update
Researchers from the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) have successfully shown that iron treatment helps increase the resistance against rice blast fungus and activate the plant’s immune response against the pathogen.
A study published in the Rice journal led by Blanca San Segundo, a researcher at CRAG, reveals that exposing rice plants to moderately high levels of iron increases resistance to infection by the pathogenic fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, the agent causing rice blast, the most common disease in rice responsible for large production losses worldwide.