Clive James, founder and chairman of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, said last week that “biotech crops have the potential to make a substantial contribution to the 2015 MDGs of cutting poverty in half, by optimizing crop productivity, which can be expedited by public-private sector partnerships, such as the drought tolerant maize for Africa supported by philanthropic entities such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.” He said the achievement of MDGs goes hand-in-hand with advances in the cultivation of GM crops and noted that by 2015, there will be an increase of about 10 countries adopting biotech crops. The first biotech-based drought tolerant corn is planned for release in North America in 2013 and in Africa by 2017, he said.