The Malawi National Biosafety Regulatory Committee recently approved confined field trials of transgenic bananas, according to Crop Biotech Update. The confined field trials will be conducted at the Bvumbwe Research Station of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security for three years, from 2016 to 2018. The transgenic banana planting materials will be introduced from Australia, and evaluated for resistance against the Banana bunchy top virus. Because of losses caused by bunchy top, Malawi has been importing bananas from Mozambique and Tanzania to meet the country's demand.
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