Letters to the Editor
'Orphan crops' for food security
Howard-Yana Shapiro, a leading plant scientist and the agriculture director of the $36bn US confectionery corporation Mars, wants to decode the genomes of the “orphan crops” which have potentialities to meet food shortage particularly in Africa. These crops include yam, finger millet, groundnut, cassava and sweet potato.
By combining traditional plant breeding methods with new biotech tools such as “genetic marking,” there is a great scope for developing more resilient and higher-yielding varieties of most orphan crops without altering or insertion of genes that takes place with controversial genetic modification.
Scientist Howard-Yana Shapiro's initiative is undoubtedly a positive and realistic step towards ensuring food security not only in Africa but in all the developing countries of the world.
Bangladesh can also be benefited by introducing cultivation of some of the 'orphan crops' like groundnut, cassava and sweet potato adopting the improved varieties for ensuring food security.
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