| Drought tolerance (8) |  |
| Urban agriculture (7) | |
A complete drought tolerant package would include appropriate crop choices and specially bred varieties of crops as well as a drought tolerant system.
The crop-centered approach to drought was discussed by my colleague Doug Gurian-Sherman in hisrecent report High and Dry.
and alfalfa that are inherently more drought tolerant and might be used more often in U s. agriculture Doug also discussed the success of conventional corn breeders who have increased drought tolerance at a steady pace of 1 percent per year over decades.
Genetic engineering has yet to play an important role in drought tolerance. Only this year did agricultural biotech company Monsanto introduce its first drought tolerant seed variety Droughtgard.
According to the Monsanto website the variety has produced a five-bushel (or about 4 percent) yield advantage in field tests against competitor hybrids.
However successful crop genetics might be new plant varieties cannot compensate for the deficiencies in systems.
Yet from drought tolerant maize to virus-resistant cassava, many biotech traits are being developed that could quickly improve the livelihoods of poorer African farmers.
as well as disease/drought resistance that also include the bread-quality gene, he said. sing the speed-breeding technology developed by QAAFI Dr Lee Hickey,
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