How will innovation in bioscience help to feed
Africa and other developing regions? Segenet Kelemu, an
influential African research leader, will provide a look at
state-of-the-art African agriculture at a TWAS round table
Friday evening, the first day of Trieste Next 2015.
The TWAS round table – Ask Africa: Can
agribiotech make a difference for developing countries?
– also will feature bioscience researchers Michele Morgante from
Udine and Alessandro Vitale from Milan. It will begin at 18:00
in the elegant Palazzo della Regione, Piazza Unità d'Italia 1. Admission is free, and Italian-English
translation will be provided.
Segenet Kelemu is the director general and CEO of
the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology's (icipe) in Nairobi, Kenya. She will kick-start TWAS's
event at the openings of the fourth edition of Trieste Next, the
annual European Fair of Scientific Research, which runs from 25
to 27 September in Trieste.
Kelemu will explore how genetic
modification of crops can help feed Africa and other developing regions
through concrete examples of sustainable biotechnology. She is the 2014
L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Awards Laureate for Africa
and the Arab States.
Along with Kelemu, the other two scientists will
examine the frontiers of agricultural biotechnology by examining
the role of agribiotech 40 years after the beginning of the
recombinant-DNA era.
Welcome remarks to the present edition of Trieste
Next - "BIOlogos:
The Future of Life" - will be provided by Cristiano Shaurli, Assessore
Regionale all'Agricoltura del Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Journalist Alessandra Ressa will chair the round table and the
debate with the public.
Among the key questions is whether governments
should adopt multiple strategies, including genetic modification
of crops, to boost agricultural production and economic growth
in Africa and other developing countries.
-- Cristina Serra Public Information Office The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) – for the advancement of science in developing countries Enrico Fermi Building Via Beirut 6 34151 Trieste, Italy Ph. +39 040 2240429 Mobile 338 4305210 Email cserra@twas.org Twitter @serracri