{"id":339602,"date":"2010-02-19T08:44:39","date_gmt":"2010-02-19T13:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3133"},"modified":"2010-02-19T08:44:39","modified_gmt":"2010-02-19T13:44:39","slug":"aid-groups-will-help-african-seed-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/339602","title":{"rendered":"Aid groups will help African seed project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmoinesregister.com\/article\/20100218\/BUSINESS01\/2180361\/1001\/NEWS\/Seed-giants-plan-projects-to-aid-Africa\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmsimg.desmoinesregister.com\/apps\/pbcsi.dll\/bilde?Site=D2&amp;Date=20100218&amp;Category=BUSINESS01&amp;ArtNo=2180361&amp;Ref=AR&amp;Profile=1001&amp;MaxW=318&amp;Border=0\" width=\"264\" align=\"right\" height=\"171\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/eenews.net\/Greenwire\/2010\/02\/18\/12\/\" >Greenwire<\/a>: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development will help pay for Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. to bring biotech seeds to African farmers.<\/p>\n<p>The move follows a similar initiative from rival company Monsanto Co. The companies say the seeds could help increase food production by 50 percent in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Africa_collection%3A_Agriculture\">Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dry weather, poor soil and lack of high-quality farming materials have hurt the continent&#8217;s corn production, but Pioneer says its modified seeds could increase crop yields by 50 percent. Company representatives would work with scientists in Africa to refine the seeds and maximize crops while also reducing the reliance on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Fertilizer\">nitrogen fertilizer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Critics say the programs are just a public relations move to gain more acceptance for the seeds. But representatives of both companies say they are hoping to increase crop yields in Africa and give people there the same access to corn as American farmers.<\/p>\n<p>The seeds would be available to African farmers without royalties. Monsanto and Pioneer will also research drought-resistant corn in Africa (Philip Brasher, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmoinesregister.com\/article\/20100218\/BUSINESS01\/2180361\/1001\/NEWS\/Seed-giants-plan-projects-to-aid-Africa\" ><em>Des Moines Register<\/em><\/a>, Feb. 18). <strong>&#8211; JP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3133&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_3133\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Share This<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greenwire: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development will help pay for Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. to bring biotech seeds to African farmers. The move follows a similar initiative from rival company Monsanto Co. The companies say the seeds could help increase food production by 50 percent in Africa. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-339602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}