Genetic Engineering and Modification: Benefits The genetic modification of crops has gained utmost popularity over the years in the way it amalgamates natural processes of plant growth with the advanced technology to present mankind with some incredible results that have the impact of increasing plant yields, tolerance of plants towards specific pests or fertilizers and chemicals and induction of some favorable traits that enhance the overall quality of the crop.
Genetically modified crops that are grown at present or are under experimental development, have been modified with features that can eventually provide some substantial advantage to the farmers, the people who consume these crops or the industry. The regulatory and research expenses involved in the field are pretty high and therefore most of the GM crops in agriculture comprise of commodity crops like soybean, maize, cotton and the like. Advantages of Genetic Modification of Plants •
Pest resistance and disease resistance: Insect pests can lead to a devastating crop loss and hence the farmers ultimately suffer from upsetting financial failures as well. This may also cause starvation in developing countries. Growing genetically modified foods like B.T corn can act as an aid to get away with using chemical pesticides and bring down the overall costs. Moreover, scientists are also working towards finding ways of genetic modification such that plants can develop resistance to a number of diseases caused by viruses, fungi, bacteria etc.
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Herbicide tolerance: For certain crops, farmers spray large amounts of weedicides or herbicides to eradicate the weeds which is actually a time consuming and expensive process. Also, it requires immense care so that the chemical doesn’t harm the plant or the environment. The
quantity of herbicides used can be reduced in an attempt to help prevent the environmental damage by formulating crop plants genetically engineered to be resistant to one dominant herbicide. •
Drought tolerance: With an increasing world population, a major portion of the land is now used for housing instead for food production. As a result, farmers need to cultivate crops in areas which were initially considered unsuitable for plant growth. Genetic modification of crops can help in this scenario to create plants that can withstand long periods of drought or a high salinity in soil and the ground water.
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Nutrition: Many third world countries suffer from the problem of malnutrition because of the lack of food and the fact that the indigenous population majorly rely on a single crop as the staple food for their diet. Take for instance, rice. However, rice doesn’t contain all the necessary nutrients that are required to check malnutrition. The nutrient deficiencies in rice can be lessened if it is genetically engineered to contain additional vitamins and minerals.
There are many other advantages of genetic modification of plants. However, the processes involved to accomplish the task can be a little complex, controversial and expensive. The procedure is lengthy and is at times speculated because geneticists expect maximum returns. The miraculous development in this field came with The Trivedi Effect® which has successfully proved the occurrence of genetic modification in plants that were experimented for the same.
Detailed reports and studies can be accessed here: http://www.trivediscience.com/genetics/plantgenetics/