Access issues may determine whether agri-biotech will help the world's poor

Plant scientists believe that the scourge of the parasitic weed Striga across vast areas of marginal land in sub-Saharan Africa, could be lifted if local crop seed was treated with a modern herbicide. However this could only be undertaken if the crops themselves were genetically modified so as to tolerate the herbicide. For many developing countries the urgent issues is how to obtain access to technology which is patented and tightly controlled by researchers.