The structure of the Rice Yellow Mottle Virus Sobemovirus.Credit: Science Picture Co / Alamy Stock Photo
New virus-resistant rice lines have been developed through genome editing by a team from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development.
In their study, published in Plant Biotechnology, the varieties resistant to Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (RYMV) disease are a preliminary step for the generation of locally adapted elite varieties for small-scale food producers in Africa. It offers protection against RYMV that accounts for between 10 and 100% losses in Africa, especially for smallholder farmers.
“Since so much labour and money goes into the production, yield losses have shocking consequences for the overall harvest, and hit small scale food producers most. The majority of producers in Asia and Africa have very little land, so live from hand to mouth,” said Wolf Frommer, the study’s co-author from the Center for Advanced Imaging, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
Frommer told Nature Africa that the new lines will soon be available for farmers in India, Kenya, Madagascar and Tanzania and Madagascar.
He says Africa-wide legislation to allow the use of genome edited plants is needed to maximize technological breakthroughs that are beneficial for African agriculture, in particular small-holder producers.
