The government bought rice and maize seed abroad, but Hondurans are choosy about beans: they like a local red variety.

ECONOMIST: Honduras and Nicaragua

For example, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ethiopia and DuPont to boost maize harvests through increased use of hybrid maize seed, improved seed distribution, and post-harvest storage.

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In the specific case of maize, to ensure that seed stocks achieve 99.9% purity, a separation distance of 200 metres is required from any source of "contaminating" maize pollen.

BBC: GM trial 'no threat to organic centre'

So the news that, last month, a group of American and Russian researchers received a patent for an apomictic maize plant has probably caused a few flutters in seed-company boardrooms.

ECONOMIST: Genetic engineering

Zeneca's switch-hitting maize plants are now being tested to see how useful they are for hybrid-seed production.

ECONOMIST: Terminator genes