Nigeria's GM Potato project concludes first-year trial, shows 300% yield advantage
The Genetically Modified (GM) Potato Project ongoing in Nigeria has concluded its first-year multi-locational confined trial in three locations, with the Biotech potatoes showing a significant yield advantage over conventional varieties planted in the country.
Preliminary results from the three locations, namely Kuru and Bokkos in Plateau State and Kusuku in Taraba State, show that the biotech potatoes had a uniform yield advantage of over 300 per cent when compared to the best-performing variety in the country when no fungicide was applied.
The trials are under the Feed the Future Global Biotech Potato Partnership (GBPP), a five-year project coordinated by Michigan State University that focuses on the commercialization of late-blight disease-resistant potatoes in farmer-preferred varieties in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, and Nigeria.
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We spend so much on chemical spray to reduce diseases and insect attacks, yet what we get at the end of the day is not proportional to the investment.
“With this biotech potato, we are encouraged that hope for a bumper harvest is possible and that with little investment, our efforts will yield good results. We are appealing to the federal government to avail us of this variety of Irish potato; it will give us more income and more food on our table.”
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https://tribuneonlineng.com/nigerias-gm-potato-project-concludes-first-year-trial-shows-300-yield-advantage/