Taking a Look at Cassava

Yams, plantains, green bananas and cassava are the essential staples in Africa. These vegetables are grown and used all over the continent, either on their own or combined with others. Cassava is an important source of dietary carbohydrates in the tropical and subtropical areas of the world, with its roots providing food for over 500 million

According to Amy Maxmen, the editor of this article, the cassava crop is harmless cooked correctly. This crop must go through a process of preparation and conservation

The dominance of the market-economy worldwide, along with the subsequent rise of the Green Revolution, eventually led to the mass-shipment and globalization of food. In today’s interconnected society, the third- world produces for consumers within western Europe and the United States.(Guptill, Food Access) This market-driven desire to indulge in out-of-season crops fuels demand towards an industrial agricultural system that focuses on cash-crop monoculture (Guptill et al.,Global Food, 125-130).

Notably some of the most significant advantages of GMO’s in the food industry are that it has allowed genetically modified crops to become pest-resistant and have greater yields. Additionally the crops can be altered to withstand virus and herbicide damage (Goldbas, 2014). By genetically modifying a crop the grower can also increase the nutritional value of the plant such as in rice where genetic enhancements increased levels of beta-carotene. GMO’s can also be altered to increase their salt tolerance so they can be grown in sodium rich soils. Genetically modified hormones can also be used to enhance a food product such as growth hormones to increase milk production in cows and hormones to raise the nutritional quality of pigs (Bobe & Procopie, 2015). The genetically modified cassava plant in in tropical Africa is an example of a plant that is being modified to be both pest-resistant and increase nutritional levels of vitamin A, minerals and protein content. The nutrient dense plant can combat iron deficiency anemia, immune system infections and prevent childhood

Though the introduction of GMO foods to market is a recent development, the technologies that make GMO production possible emerged in the early 20th century. The field of medical science is the lead contributor to the techniques that are used today to alter the genetic makeup of plants that are used in agricultural production. Frederick Griffith conducted research in 1928 that identified reliable practices for altering the characteristics of plants through genetic modifications (Vasil, 2008). The

After no significant differences in performance were detected between transgenic and non-transgenic plants with MANOVA and GLM tests, the authors pooled the performance variables within each generation. They used a linear model and a Tukey’s multiple comparison test with the following variables: germination time (log10), leaf area (log10), number of female/male flowers (log10), number of seeds per fruit (log10) and seed mass (square root).

Although the goal of both genetic engineering and traditional plant breeding is to improve an organism’s traits, there are some key differences between them. While genetic engineering manually moves genes from one organism to another, traditional breeding moves genes through

Across sub-Saharan Africa, most people live in rural areas and rely on agricultural for their livelihoods; and most of them are poor and many are hungry. While it is believed that Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are part of the solution to global population and food scarcity in, give or take, 2030, as these under-developing countries find it difficult to achieve the goal of a complete end to poverty and hunger. Therefore, many organizations are perusing the way of beneficial producing crops for livestock Africa is the perfect fit to encourage GMOs because they could do far more to alleviate rural poverty and hunger in Africa.

Genetic modification of plants has been in use by farmers for many years. During the early farming, seeds of good producing crops were kept and preserved for use in the next season. Moreover, hybrids or crossbred plants have been established for various types of crops. Although, these plants are not recognized as GMOs since they are manipulated naturally, i.e. there is no recombinant DNA technique in introduction of new gene. There are various methods of introducing a gene into a plant. The common method uses agrobacterium, a genetic promoter and a soil bacterium from cauliflower mosaic virus. Other genetically tailored organisms (GMOs) are those resistant to drought or fungi, and those resistant to herbicides, thus delayed for ripening of fruits, therefore, increasing crop yield (Ahmed, 2002).

However, one of the major problems of many tissue cultured plants is somaclonal variation. It is the variation originating in cell and tissue cultures (Larkin and Scowcroft, 1981). The growth of plant cells in vitro and their regeneration into whole plants is an asexual process which involves only mitotic division of the cell. Therefore, theoretically, it should not cause any variation. Ideally, it is expected to get clonal multiplication of genetically uniform plants. However, due to somaclonal variation, uncontrolled and random spontaneous variation occurs during the culture process. On the other hand, somaclonal variation also has its advantages. It is useful in crop improvement through creation of novel variants. Induced somaclonal variation is used for genetic manipulation of crops with polygenic traits (Jain, 2001). It can also be a vital tool for plant breeding via generation of new varieties. This could exhibit disease resistance, improvement in quality and give a better yield of the plants. Somaclonal variants may vary from the source plant permanently or temporarily. Temporary changes result from epigenetic or physiological effects and are non-heritable and reversible but, permanent variants are heritable and often represent an expression of pre-existing variation in the source plant or are due to the de novo

Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek), also known as green gram, is a major pulse crop of India. Mungbean has been vastly grown on the Indian subcontinent as well as parts of Asia. Mungbean has also been referred to be part of the poor man’s meat because of its high nutritive value as well as its ease of digestibility. India alone accounts for 65% of its world acreage and 54% of the production (Biyani et al., 2012).The pulse is of short duration and is a multifunctional pulse as it is now known to provide a good quality combination of fodder for livestock, green manure and food. Mungbean is known to fix atmospheric nitrogen and its symbiotic association of nodulated roots and Rhizobia has enabled farmers to save money on procuring N-fertilisers. If grown in a cropping system mungbean’s rhizodeposition abilities might contribute significantly to higher C and N availability in soils to succeeding crops (Zang et al., 2015). Mungbean has low input requirements and has the ability to provide much required nutrients and moisture for a succeeding crop (Singh et al., 2011). India and the Indian subcontinent as well as the rest of the world face a problem of increasing population which is compounded by dwindling natural resources such as land (soil

The authors said that there is a need to identify and address the barriers to consumption of fruits and vegetables. According to past research, the high cost, limited availability and access, and lack of cooking/preparation time can be barriers to fruit and veggie consumption.

Niger, a country located in North West Africa, is simply one of the poorest countries in the world. With the majority of its land occupied by dry, infertile desert, finding a secure source of food is next to impossible for many (Burki 1). Malnutrition is common and affects a large part of the population. 800,000 children under five years old die from acute malnutrition annually (Langendorf). A popular choice in Niger is to avoid the dry land by herding livestock for a living. However many still choose to grow pearl millet, one of the few plants able to grow in semi-arid regions, to feed their family (Sawaya 1). A small family in Niger, living just a few miles from the city of Zinder, attempts to feed their family by growing pearl millet.

In this respect, earlier studies shows that, culture condition, callus phase, duration of the non morphogeneic stage and the growth regulators are some of the important factors influencing the induction of somaclonal variations in in vitro generated plants (Shepard et al. 1980; Hartman et al. 1984; Evans et al. 1987). As conventional micro propagation techniques using somatic explants requires the artificial induction of embryogenic competence in cells which are not naturally embryogenic, the influence of the above factors will be more in somatic embryogenesis process thereby increasing the possibility of generating more somaclonal variants (Dodeman et al. 1997). An alternative method is the zygotic embryogenesis technique where, the above effects will be negligible because the explant zygote is intrinsically embryogenic. In short, the zygote shows some structural and functional characteristics which are intimately linked with the formation of the first embryonic developmental stage with many of the genes required for the induction process already expressed. Due to this embryonic potentiality of the cells, their fate is already committed and does not need to be redirected towards a new developmental path. Considering the above facts, it is assumed that the chance induction of somaclonal

Growth and productivity of guava is affected by various factors including tree age, planting densities, cultivation, insect, pests, diseases and mineral nutrition (Hammami et al., 2010). Reasons that are responsible for low guava production in Pakistan include poor management, severe attack of fruit fly on summer crop, post-harvest losses and occurrence of cross pollination. Food productivity is decreasing due to detrimental effects of various biotic and abiotic stresses; therefore minimizing these losses is a major area of concern to ensure food security under changing climate. Environmental abiotic stresses, such as drought, extreme temperature, cold, heavy metals, or high salinity, severely impair plant growth and productivity worldwide.