[:es]Biotechnology, Food Production at Global Event in Cuba[:]

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Varadero, Matanzas, Cuba, Dec 5 .- The challenge of safe food as of biotechnology focuses debates of a congress that begins here today with specialists from more than 30 countries.

 

Under the slogan ‘Agricultural biotechnology in the 21st century’, the event brings together researchers from Latin America, the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.

Cuban scientist Mario Estrada, president of the organizing committee, said during a news conference that the issue of the congress is linked to one of the main challenges facing humanity: the search for new forms of food production and how biotechnology can contribute.

We are seven billion people in the world today, we will be about nine billion people by 2050, but with less water and habitable lands, he warned.

The congress, which runs until Wednesday, December 6, includes seven symposiums in its theoretical program, among them the one devoted to Aquatic biotechnology.

Several personalities take part in Biotechnology Havana 2017, among them Nobel prizewinner in Medicine, Richard Robert, who will give the opening lecture.

An effective vaccine against classical swine fever is among the products presented by the Cuban science in the congress.

This is Porvac vaccine, which showed positive results against that disease that causes damage and losses to the Cuban pork industry, Cuban scientist Mario Pablo Estrada, president of the organizing committee, told Prensa Latina.

The most recent results of a product destined to the sugar industry, which diversifies production and increases its added value, will be also shown during the Congress.

Hebernem, a bioproduct produced to control nematodes, a pest that causes low efficiency in agricultural production, is also on the list.

Organized by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the congress is being held at the Plaza America Convention Center, in the seaside resort of Varadero. (Prensa Latina)

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