Uganda tests GM cotton
24/10/2008
Scientists in Uganda will soon begin testing the genetically modified cotton in their laboratories to prove whether they are resistant to cotton wilt and other related cotton diseases, which has been destroying crops of the conventional cotton plant in the African country.
Confined filed trials will be conducted at two sites, at Mubuku in the west of the country and Serere in the east.
These two regions represent major cotton growing areas although agricultural conditions in both different.
Cotton production began in Uganda at the start of the twentieth century and the fibre quickly established itself as the main earner of foreign exchange. After a decline, the government began promoting cotton again in 1994, by which time the economy had become over-dependent on coffee, but insects, pests, weeds, disease and poor soil condition prevented cotton from relaunching itself as a star of the Ugandan economy, which is why the government decided to test the genetically modified version.
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