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Bill Gates donates Sh1.3b to biotech group
 
By Tom Mogusu A consortium led by a Kenya biotechnology company, Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (Africa Harvest), has won a Sh1.3billion (US$16.9 million) grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The grant, announced in the US this week, is under the Grand Challenges of Global Health programme of the foundation by the world’s richest couple.

The five-year project will go towards developing nutritious, easily digestible sorghum with higher levels of vitamins, minerals and protein.

Africa Harvest CEO, Dr Florence Wambugu, said the grant was in recognition of the world-class work by African scientists.

"It is refreshing to note that the project proposal was put together by African scientists for the African continent."

The consortium, made up of nine leading organisations, will develop a new variety of sorghum, a cereal consumed by more than 300 million people in arid regions of Africa who rely on this grain as their primary source of food," a statement from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s public relations agency said.

Sorghum is one of the few crops that do well in arid climates but it is deficient in most essential nutrients and is difficult to digest when cooked.

The project seeks to develop a more nutritious and easily digestible sorghum that contains higher levels of pro-vitamin A, vitamin E, iron, zinc, amino acids, and protein.

A prototype, containing increased levels of the amino acid lysine, has already been successfully developed through the funding from the foundation.

 

Kay