MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Bill Gates finances research project to improve corn yields
The idea is to use nitrogen-fixing bacteria instead of expensive fertilizers Billionaire computer magnate Bill Gates is to fund a €8m research project into whether cereal crops can be genetically engineered with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
The aim is to create cereal crops that can access nitrogen from the air using symbiotic bacteria, reducing the need for expensive chemical fertiliser.
Microsoft founder Gates and wife Melinda are backing the project through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in an attempt to help small subsistence farmers around the world.
The focus of the investigation will be maize, which is the most important staple crop for small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
However, if successful, the technology will be applicable to all cereal crops including wheat, barley and rice.
The John Innes Centre in Norwich, England, is to lead the five-year research program.
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Read all commentsThe picture looks like something from a Hammer horror B movie ...
Aug 11th, 2012 - 03:42 pm 0“It's horrible, just horrible”.
“Don't look darling”.
It might be worth pointing out that the hand is holding a legume root with nodules rich in nitrogen-fixing bacteria [but I guess we all knew that, really].
Considering the options and the overseas research associations available, England is a strange place to do this research.
John Innes is as poorly defended against the anti-GM 'extremists' as was Rothamsted, where scientists and their GM research programmes suffered greatly at their hands.
In four words: I don't trust Gates.
Aug 11th, 2012 - 07:36 pm 0#2 Funny that, for someone as pro-capitalist as you! Is it because he DOESN'T keep all his money to himself?!
Aug 11th, 2012 - 08:47 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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