144 / SEEDWORLD.COM DECEMBER 2017 STATUS CHINA Expectations that China will become more open to GM crops in the aftermath of ChemChina’s purchase of Syngenta are receiving little official givernment support. Although China President Xi Jinping has called for “indus- trial, production and busi- ness operation systems for modern agriculture,” he has historically fudged his posi- tion on GM — urging advo- cates to be “bold in research, careful in promotion.” The issue of approving GM crops for planting received little mention during President Xi’s lengthy address to the October national congress of China’s Communist Party, despite his calls for more modern agriculture to ensure China’s food security. Only a few edible crops are approved for planting due to entrenched domestic fears that the technology poses a security threat. Chinese researchers are vying to promote new varieties they have developed, while not revealing whether they are genetically modified. Many are grown in demonstration fields but are not commercialized. A loose coalition of leftists, environmentalists and retired officials wrote letters to the top leadership last year opposing the ChemChina – Syngenta deal. Leftists and nationalists fear that foreign GM technol- world STATUS A look at seed industry developments around the globe. Bt cowpeas in Western Africa anticipated by smallholder farmers. GM technology resisted by farmers in India, Iranian farmers unaware. ogy poses a security threat to China, but are more open to approvals of domestically developed GM varieties. Environmentalists, on the other hand, oppose all GM adoption in China due to concerns about the damage caused by the herbicides and pesticides used with the crops. STATUS AFRICA Across Africa, armies of hungry caterpillars destroy the flowers and pods of cowpeas, reducing yields of this staple food crop by 80 percent. The real victims are small- holder African farmers in Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Ghana who feed their families on farms smaller than 2 hec- tares (5 acres). Cowpeas are an important sources of protein for rural families in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2018, these farmers – many of them women – will have the option to grow Bt cow- peas resistant to the Maruca pod borer, one of the most destructive insect pests. Bt cowpea could yield as much as 25 percent more than other cowpea varie- ties, says TJ Higgins at the Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) who led this work. In 2009, Higgins began working with colleagues and authorities in West Africa to develop regulatory approval for Bt cowpea. “Many African farmers do not have to pay for seed, and they will not have to pay anything extra for the Bt cowpea either,” Higgins says. “They will be able to save seed and replant it the following year. There are no additional costs because this work has been publicly funded all the way through.” This work was initially sup- ported by the Rockefeller Foundation and then funded for over a decade by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The Bt cowpeas have multiple genes for resistance to the pod borer. There’s always a risk that the insects will build up resistance with only one mode of action. At least 200 million people rely on cowpeas as a source of protein and energy, but the crop is neglected by com- mercial companies because it is most important to some of the world’s poorest people. The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (ATTF) has developed man- agement plans to deliver agricultural technologies to smallholder farmers. Cowpea breeders are also committed to incorporat- ing Bt into their best lines to ensure that this technol- ogy keeps pace with yield improvements from tradi- tional breeding. The public sector collabo- ration between Australia, Nigeria, and other West