Following the adoption of a law that granted experimentation rights both in labs and fields and conduct of confined field trials of BT cotton, Ethiopia is gearing up to begin commercial sale of BT cotton in two years.
Endale Gebre, Director of agricultural bio technology sector at the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute, says they will sell the BT cotton seed varieties to the market in coming one or two years. He further added the confined field trail stage of the BT cotton has now entered final stages which will allow the cotton to be commercialised. The trials have been conducted for four years on four different varieties sourced from India and Sudan.
The field trial has been conducted in selected cotton growing areas of the country. Most activities have been undertaken in the North, South and Eastern parts of the country. Based on field results, Endale has confirmed Ethiopia will have a BT cotton variety in the plantations sometime soon.
