Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

482 Modern Agricultural Reforms

Table 19.1

(continued)

Areas of application

Techniques/category

Zimbabwe

Tissue culture (TC)

Used in micropropagation and disease elimination for sweet potatoes, mushrooms, Irish potatoes and horticultural crops

Genetic modification (GM)

Still at the research level, mainly for use in crop improvement for cowpeas, tobacco, maize and sorghum. Confined trials of

Bt

maize and cotton have been conducted

Fermentation technology

Used in food processing, feed and vaccine production

Marker-assisted selection

At the research level for improvement of maize for drought resistance and for small-stock improvement

Artificial insemination and embryo transfer

Used for cattle and small-stock breeding

Molecular diagnostics and molecular markers

Used for plant and animal disease diagnosis and diversity studies

Biological nitrogen fixation

Used for soil fertility improvement for both legumes and inoculants

Manpower training

Specific biotech training programmes have been developed at both undergraduate and graduate levels (University of Zimbabwe, National University of Science and Technology, Africa University)

Source

: Mnyulwa and Mugwagwa, 2002