China to Increase Funding for GM Research
China is set to finance a research program to the tune of US$1.4 billion on genetically modified (GM) crops by the end of this year. Dr. Huang Dafang, former director of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ Biotechnology Research Institute, relayed this information during a Beijing forum on the annual global status report of biotech crops in 2007. Huang says that variables such as yield, quality, nutritional value and drought resistance will be looked at by the new research program. Corn and wheat in addition to rice and cotton are expected to be the focus of GM technology research.
Additional details are available at
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2008/March/26030801.asp.
The global status report presented by Dr. Clive James, chair of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), highlighted the fact that about 12 million farmers from 23 countries are now planting biotech crops spread across 114.3 million hectares. View the Executive Summary of the report at
www.isaaa.org. 
