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Donors hope spirulina, a blue-green, protein-packed algae, labelled a "wonderful future food source" 45 years ago by the International Association of Microbiology, will deliver on its promise by the time a US$1.7 million cultivation project in Chad, funded by the European Union (EU), ends in December 2010.

"It's as close as we will get to a miracle food," said Mahamat Sorto, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) officer managing the project. Aid agencies see the plant as a possible cheap solution to global malnutrition.

Health food stores in rich countries have promoted spirulina as an energy-enhancing supplement, but it has been eaten for centuries in various parts of the world.

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