Field trials with MON 87460 are currently underway in South Africa at Hopetown, Orania, Pretoria, Lutzville and Delareyville.

These field trials form part of a larger initiative under the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) Project, a public-private partnership between African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), Monsanto, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the South African Agricultural Research Council (ARC).

A combination of conventional breeding, marker-assisted breeding and transgenics are being used to develop maize with improved drought stress tolerance. WEMA also has partnerships with the national agricultural agencies of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique. According to the permit applications,

“The goal of WEMA is to provide smallholder farmers in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa with access to water efficient transgenic maize hybrids, royalty free, enabling them to produce more reliable harvests”.

CONTENTS:

  • Introduction
  • Rational for this application
  • Status of approval of Monsanto’s drought-tolerant maize in the USA
  • Our main concerns
  • The nature of drought resistance
  • Other approaches to drought
  • The mon87460 transgenic cassette
  • Lack of monitoring Socio-economic impacts
  • Lack of biosafety capacity in South Africa
  • Conclusion
  • References.

Read here.