Chile develops GM drought resistant eucalyptus
Biotech Brasil
August 25, 2007
The National Director for the Chilean Agricultural Research Institute (INIA), Leopoldo Sanchez, and the Executive Director for the Forestry Research Institute (INFOR), Marta Abalos, presented on August 13 the project “Generation and production of drought tolerant eucalyptus plants”. The entities developed the plant variety with the objective of making available to forestry companies and farmers from the Chilean arid regions, trees that can better resist situations of water shortage. The activity carried out in the INFOR headquarters in the city of Concepcion, has the intention of meeting the current and future demand for raw materials of the wood industry and related sectors. Currently the 1.8 million hectares located in the arid regions of O’Higgins and Bio-Bio is not adequately explored due to the long drought periods.
Source: Biotech Brasil
