Researchers are left in limbo as they await funding for a genetically modified potato project that lost its financing as part of the US government’s suspension of non-humanitarian aid to Ethiopia.

The National Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center (NABRC) working with researchers at Michigan State University won a USD 13 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a project in 2021.

The project was intended to create a late-blight resistant potato for agricultural production using genes from a wild species of potato. The genetically modified organism (GMO) project is headed by Tadesse Daba (PhD), country coordinator at Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology at NABRC.

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The US government announced the suspension of all non-humanitarian aid to Ethiopia in 2021, a few months after fighting began between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the federal government.

Tadesse warns the potato project cut off could have grave consequences.

“Late-blight could attack all edible species of potato all over the world,” he said. “The devastation to production could be between 70 and 100 percent, which is why grant proposals were submitted from various countries.”

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