http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/40347Nigeria to roll out fungus-resistant soybean crops
A variety of soybean resistant to a devastating Asian rust will soon be widely available in West and Central Africa. The rust, a fungal disease
that entered Africa in 1996, can wipe out 80 per cent of infected crops.
Scientists from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
(IITA) in Nigeria and the country's National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) developed the rust-resistant variety, named TGX 1835-10E.
They say it will drastically reduce the rust problem as it has resistance genes for all known types of rust in Nigeria.
"The variety can be used for direct cultivation in tropical Africa or as a source of resistance genes in soybean breeding programmes," says IITA soybean breeder, Hailu Tefera. "It was previously released in Uganda by Makerere University and has also already shown excellent performance in trials carried out in southern Africa."
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and the very important part!
The breakthrough is important because farmers can plant the new variety without applying expensive anti-rust chemicals
. In 2003 — just two years after Asian rust arrived — Brazil lost US$2 billion in soybean harvests despite spending US$400 million on fungicides.
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US chemical Barons will now bomb Nigeria to extinction