Battling bugs
Pests and diseases are a farmer's nightmare. But what's the best way to keep them at bay?
Instead of spraying crops with expensive and potentially hazardous chemicals, researchers are trying to create plants that resist problems by themselves.
Currently, farmers have to spray potatoes once a week to avoid the devastating late blight disease. But there are wild Andean potatoes that aren't affected by blight. If scientists can transfer their genes to other potato varieties in the lab, the GM super-spuds won't need spraying with fungicides.
Rob says: 'It sounds sensible to me to use GM technology to minimise nasty chemicals in the environment.'