African GM Project Fails

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Thursday, 05 February 2004

Three years of field trials have shown that GM sweet potatoes modified to resist a virus were no less vulnerable than ordinary varieties, and sometimes their yield was lower, according to the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute. Embarrassingly, in Uganda conventional breeding has produced a high-yielding resistant variety more quickly and more cheaply.
The failed GM project has cost Monsanto, the World Bank and the US government an estimated $6 million over the last decade. It had been held up worldwide as an example of how GM crops will help revolutionise farming in Africa.
Source New Scientist