Scientists say newly published guidelines will spur research into crops that have increased yields and greater resilience to climate change.
No foreign genes
GM crops require extensive, large-scale field trials before they are approved for use. The new guidelines stipulate that, for gene-edited crops deemed to pose no environmental or food-safety risks, developers need only provide laboratory data and conduct small-scale field trials. Already, researchers are planning to focus more of their work on developing new crops that will be valuable to farmers. For example, Jian-Kang Zhu, a plant molecular biologist at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, says he wants to develop gene-edited varieties that have increased yields, resilience against climate change and a better response to fertilizer.