Genetically modifying crops to withstand drought may help save lives – UCT researcher
16:50 / 3 FEB 2016
CAPE TOWN, February 3 (ANA) – Modifying plants to be drought tolerant may help secure South Africa’s future of food production, a leading researcher from the University Cape Town has said.
Jill Farrant, Professor of molecular and cell biology at UCT, has spent the last 21 years researching the benefits that could come from genetically modifying plants to be able to dry out during a drought and resurrect again when there’s water.
“Many people said I was crazy in the beginning,” said Farrant, who has since received extensive recognition for her work, which included the 2012 L’Oréal-UNESCO award for Women in Science.
Farrant has also received an A-rating by the National Research Foundation (NRF).
“An A-rating is only awarded if you are considered a world authority in a subject, as judged by international peers,” said Professor Johan Burger from Stellenbosch University’s Department of Genetics.
Farrant has teamed up with collaborators from around the world to see her research fulfilled.
“I don’t think many people in Africa think about the trouble they’re in,” said Farrant, who added that it was only when people were in the middle of a crisis that they started to act, by which time it could be too late.
The severe effects of El Nino, believed to be driven by climate change, has had a crippling effect on South Africa’s agricultural industry. This has led the country to begin importing up to six million tonnes of maize.
Resurrection plants can lose a huge amount of water during a drought and fold up and dry out, but not die. When the plant receives water again it unfolds and flowers.
“I saw resurrection plants when I was nine and wrote about it in my diary,” said Farrant, who added that there were resurrection plants already in nature capable of surviving desiccation (the process of extreme drying).
Farrant’s work would include breeding a resurrection teff grass, which is a high-protein, gluten-free seed staple food crop. Farrant has said that she could do this without the genetic modification, by conventional breeding.
“A far simpler and faster route would be to switch on the endogenous resurrection-related genes in teff grass by means of genetic engineering, but the anti-GM lobby is stronger than ever, especially in Africa, it boggles the mind!” said Burger.
Farrant’s research has been met with criticism from some quarters which did not like the fact that the plants would be genetically modified, fearing it would affect their health.
“There is some resistance because of the GM factor,” said Farrant, who said that GM products were not so bad when you compare it to people dying if they did not have food.
Many crops currently produced in the world were genetically modified for many reasons, including virus resistance, so that food production was more successful, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“No effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved,” said the WHO.
“I don’t have confidence in this being the great solution for Africa. It would just be one of many solutions,” said Farrant.
Farrant was awarded the research chair of plant physiology and molecular biology and is the panel chair of the Academy of Science South Africa (ASSAf) Committee assessing biosafety and biosecurity in South Africa.
African News Agency