The National Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center (NABRC), in collaboration with Michigan State University researchers, is in a state of uncertainty after the US government suspended non-humanitarian aid to Ethiopia, affecting their $13 mln genetically modified potato project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project aimed to develop a late-blight resistant potato using genes from a wild species.
"The only thing left was signing an agreement and to begin testing in a confined trial farming area," Tadesse Daba, project lead and country coordinator at NABRC, told The Reporter. "But war broke out in northern Ethiopia and our research was cut off."
USAID has since redirected the funding to Kenyan researchers, leaving the Ethiopian project on hold. NABRC had previously received a permit from the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority to test the genetically modified potatoes on a quarantined trial farming area.
The department is also conducting research on a bacterial-wilt resistant strain of Enset, a vital source of nutrition for about a fifth of Ethiopia's population. The lead researcher on the Enset project, Ibsa Fite, said, "Drought and food insecurity in the Gurage, Sidama, and Dawro regions are heavily influenced by the destruction this disease causes."
Source: thereporterethiopia.com