British GM crop wins $10m grant to develop corn varieties to absorb nitrogen
A $10m grant has been handed over to the researchers at the UK-based John Innes Centre in order to develop GM varieties of corn that are able to absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere, this eliminating the use of fertilisers. The multi-million sum from the Gates Foundation was officially signed and confirmed two years ago and will fund a five year project investigating ‘nitrogen fixation’ in the cereal grain. The project’s long-term purpose is to search for an environmentally-sustainable solution for smaller corn farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to increase yields. Nitrogen fixation is the process of nitrogen in the atmosphere being converted into ammonia. Certain legumes, typically beans, naturally contribute to this process as bacteria in their root systems produces nitrogen compounds that aids plant growth. Once the plant dies, the fixed nitrogen is then released and naturally fertilises the soil. Zoe Dunford, the media manager at the John Innes Centre (JIC), said that scientists will use the investment to further continuing research. She said that JIC are already involved in research into how legumes self-fertilise and react with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. She added: “With this new grant, the scientists will be able to start investigating the feasibility of enabling cereal crops to start up the same complex relationship with nitrogen fixing bacteria”. Professor Giles Oldroyd, a lead scientist at the JIC, said that a new method of nitrogen fertilisation is needed in Africa since fertilisers are unaffordable for small-scale farmers. He said: “Delivering new technology within the seed of crops has many benefits for farmers as well as the environment, such as self-reliance and equity”. Dunford also said that there are no guarantees with this kind of ambitious blue skies research but scientists hope that work will persuade cereals to at least recognise nitrogen-fixing bacteria, if not react with it. “Developing a GM crop variety is a long way down the line,” she added, and the public, retailers and policy makers would decide the availability of the crop in the UK. Sir Gordon Conway, the professor of International Development at Imperial College London, said that such work is the “Holy grail” of modern plant breeding. Conway said that, to feed the world by 2050 greater yields with less fertilisers will be needed, “one answer is to breed cereal crops that can partner with bacteria in their roots to take in nitrogen from the atmosphere”. Professor Jules Pretty, the deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Essex, said: “If we cracked N fixation in cereals, in this case maize in Africa, it would be perhaps the greatest agricultural breakthrough of the century, perhaps of the millennium”. However, pressure groups GM Freeze and Friends of the Earth (FoE) have both deflated the investment. Pete Riley, the campaign director at GM Freeze said the project is “a waste of money that should have been used on more important and urgent research”. His company said that such GM development is not the right answer and recommended that they focus on long crop rotations that use the crops to naturally build up soil fertility by fixing nitrogen. In April earlier this year, Rothamsted Research – based in Hertfordshire – sparked controversy with plans to start field testing with GM wheat over the next two years. The Real Bread Campaign hit out against the research because of fears that the GM wheat could possibly be commercialised for food use soon and submitted an anti-GM wheat pledge signed by 350 bakers, millers, farmers and consumers to the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs.
