The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced the deregulation of genetically engineered cotton with ultra-low levels of gossypol in its seed, which was developed by experts at Texas A&M University. Gossypol is a natural compound present in the pigments of cotton plants which protects them from pests and diseases.

Researchers from Cornell University and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will tap into the genetic information of more than 700 species of related grasses, in hopes of making maize and sorghum more productive and resilient to extreme weather brought about by climate change. The researchers will look into the Andropogonae tribe of grasses, which includes maize, sorghum, and sugarcane.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has instructed the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Trade, Industry and Cooperatives to explore the possibility of farming Bt cotton to revitalize the country's cotton sub-sector. In his Heroes' Day address to the nation, President Kenyatta directed the three ministries to work together and come up with a quick mechanism to revive the production of cotton, including the possibility of introducing biotech cotton.

Public funding alone is not enough to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and development and international financing institutions must collaborate more strategically to leverage private investments. That is the message from today's Global Forum that has brought together over 200 investors, business leaders, representatives from multilateral development institutions, and policy-makers and government officials from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. 
 

Climate change, plant diseases and insect pests cause an estimated annual loss of US$ 8.6 billion, posing a huge challenge for smallholder farmers. This is where the Center of Excellence on Climate Change Research for Plant Protection (CoE-CCRPP), set up by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) at ICRISAT, could make a difference.

The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is an important pathogen of rice, such that it is the most significant threat to rice production, and manipulating it can be a relevant tool in managing the disease. Researcher Nicholas Talbot from The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich and colleagues used CRISPR-Cas9 system expression in complex with ribonucleoprotein to target M. oryzae.

Rice feeds more than three billion people globally, and thus, scientists have long been putting great efforts to improve this important crop. One of the advances in rice improvement is the usage of genome editing tools to target genes for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, nutrition quality improvement, and yield improvement. Researcher Kaijun Zao from Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and colleagues present advances, challenges, and future implications of genome editing in rice in an article in Frontiers in Plant Science,

OpenMTA, a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) providing legal frameworks to research organizations in defining terms and conditions for sharing their materials has been made available through an international collaboration. The new easy to use tool is designed to support openness, sharing, and innovation in global biotechnology. The new easy to use tool is designed to support openness, sharing, and innovation in global biotechnology.

The inaugural harvest of the first gene-edited high-fiber wheat has been completed, as reported by its developer, Calyxt. The high-fiber wheat is the seventh Calyxt product that has been declared as non-regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), including powdery mildew-resistant wheat, high-oleic soybeans, high-oleic/low-linoleic soybeans, improved quality alfalfa, cold storable potatoes and reduced browning potatoes.

The progress of GM research is running smoothly in Cameroon, according to Dr. David Akuroh Mbah, Chief Research Officer at the Cameroon Academy of Sciences. Confined field trials of GM cotton were initiated by Sodecotton in Cameroon in 2012. In 2015, open field trials were conducted under the observation of the National Biosafety Committee and the Competent National Authority in the Ministry of Environment,