b'animal health and the environ- of Environment, Forest andand/or derived products willtry to enable members of the ment. Climate Changes release. be regulated under KenyasVariety Release Committee to Biosafety Act, and which prod- approve the crop.ucts are regulated as conven- The farmers who will STATUS INDIA STATUS JAPAN tional varieties or breeds. Theparticipate in the trials will be On March 31, the MinistryA food safety and securityGuidelines will lead applicantsrandomly selected and will be of Environment, Forest andexpert in Japan has recentlyand reviewers on the approachrequired to plant the variety Climate Change of Indiawritten about genome editingto take while submitting andon their fields.revised its rules concerning theand genetically modified (GM)reviewing applications forSource: African Agricultural applications of gene editing incrops in an effort to explainconsideration of projects atTechnology Foundationagriculture. The ruling statesrisk communication. Takeshiresearch, trials, and commer-gene editing will be excludedYamazaki, chairman of the NPOcial release of products of this from the GMO classification. Society for the Science of Foodtechnology, explained Dr. RoySTATUS UKRAINEThe ruling concerns a regu- Safety and Security (SFSS) saidMugiira, NBAs acting ChiefWith the news of Russia lation called the Manufacture,that GM and genome-editedExecutive Officer. invading Ukraine, questions Use, Import, Export andcrops are safer than wild orSource: ISAAA about the future are on the Storage of Hazardousconventional varieties. rise. For agriculture and food Microorganisms/GeneticallyThe expert said thatsecurity, one question rings: Engineered Organisms ofcomparing GM and genome- STATUS NIGERIA whats the status of agricul-Cells, dated December 5, 1989.editing crops with "natural"Researchers at the Instituteture exports from Ukraine?The Ministry recommendedseems safe at first glance,for Agricultural Research,Grain production is a major that genome edited productsbut it is rather the oppositeAhmadu Bello University inendeavor in Ukrainethe U.S. under the labels SDN1 andfor food safety experts. GMNigeria are set to start theDepartment of Agricultures SDN2 free from exogenousor genome-edited crops areNational Performance Trial(USDA) Foreign Agricultural introduced DNA be exemptedsafer than conventional or wild(NPT) for the TELA Maize asService GAIN reports in 2021 from biosafety assessmentsvarieties, with significantlypart of requirements for theUkraine harvested 6,700 located in Rule 20. improved taste and yield. Herelease and registration of thethousand hectares of wheat, In laymens terms, genealso said that it is an undeni- variety. resulting in approximately 32.2 edited products with the classi- able fact that current agricul- According to plans by themillion metric tons of grains. fications SDN1 or SDN2 will nottural products that peopleTELA Maize Project team, theBarley and rye are major be treated as other transgenicthink are conventionally bredtrials will be conducted in 10products as wellapproxi-products. This potentiallyhave genes that have beenstates involving 180 farmersmately 9.6 million metric tons opens the door to new tech- modified through conventionalacross the country within theof barley and 600 thousand niques, such as CRISPR, to bebreeding.maize growing belt of Nigeriametric tons of rye were pro-used in plant breeding. Source: ISAAA following the completion ofduced. With this, India now has athe Confined Field Trials (CFT)Russia and Ukraine separate regulatory process forat the Institute for Agriculturalaccount for 29% of global such technologies that takesSTATUS KENYA Research, Samaru, Zaria. wheat exports, 19% of world them out of the purview ofKenyas National BiosafetyManaged by AATF, the TELAmaize (corn) exports, and Genetic Engineering AppraisalAuthority (NBA) has publishedMaize is the first genetically80% of world sunflower Committee or GEAC, saidGenome Editing Guidelines,modified maize variety in theoil exports, according to Bhagirath Choudhary of themarking an important stepcountry to have undergoneReuters recent update. The South Asia Biotechnologytowards the development ofthrough CFT in the country. market is still struggling to Centre, an advocate for GMa genome editing regulatoryThe trials have three mainget a clear picture of the technologies, in a news articleframework in the country.objectives which include theactual military situation on the to the Hindustan Times.After Nigeria, Kenya becomesdemonstration of the proof ofground. The ports in the Azov For gene edited plants tothe second African country toconcept to show that the tech- and Black Sea so far seem be released as a new vari- publish such guidelines. nology works, to show hownot to have been damaged ety, they will still be subjectThe published guidelinesadoptable the variety is and toaccording to the initial ship-to further development andprovide clarity on whichgenerate data from the differ- ping agency reports. SWevaluation, per the Ministrygenome-edited organismsent agroecologies in the coun-INTERNATIONAL EDITION 2022SEEDWORLD.COM /99'