Nairobi — Scientists have identified genes in local maize varieties that can fight off stemborers by summoning their natural enemies, raising hopes for pest-resistant varieties for African smallholders, a study says.
Stemborer -- an insect larva that bores in plant stems -- is causing smallholders in Sub-Saharan Africa yield losses of about US$1.5 billion a year and negatively affecting the livelihoods of nearly 300 million people, according to the study.
...
AllAfrica Subscription Content
You must be an allAfrica.com subscriber for full access to certain content.
You have selected an article from the AllAfrica archive, which requires a subscription. You can subscribe by visiting our subscription page. Or for more information about becoming a subscriber, you can read our subscription and contribution overview.
For information about our premium subscription services:
You can also freely access - without a subscription - hundreds of today's top Africa stories and thousands of recent news articles from our home page »
Already a subscriber? Sign in for full access to article