Impact of Plant Biotechnology in Agriculture

Abstract

Ever since the advent of agriculture, there has been a need to improve crop plants for increased productivity, improved quality and to satisfy changing human preferences. This need is more acutely felt today and, particularly, in the developing world where the population is continuing to increase. Genetic modification of plants probably began through selection of novel types about 10,000 years ago when human agricultural activities began and useful results were often a product of random or chance events. Through elucidation of the laws of genetics, molecular tools for understanding plant biology, plant breeding became a deliberate and predictable activity with the result that tailor-made crops are now in place (Table 1). Traditional plantbreeding methods have been very successful and have helped provide the volume of food required to allow the world population to grow to its present 6×109. Breeding efforts have provided remarkable diversity amongst various crop species and even some new crops, such as triticale, in addition to the introduction of new genes from wild species (Brar and Khush 1997). However, recent trends in crop productivity indicate that traditional methods alone will not be able to keep pace with the growing demands for food, fibre and fuel. The yield increases in many food crops have hit a plateau or have fallen below the rate of population increase. Farmers in South and Southeast Asia must consistently produce an extra 30% more cereals in order to maintain current nutrition levels and food security. Biotechnology offers a challenging role to reduce the gap of yield improvement (Hossain et al. 2000; Lorz et al. 2000; Miflin 2000; Phillips 2000; Khush 2001; Datta et al. 2003a, b; Vasil 2005; Mackill 2006). This task does not become any easier with diminishing land and water resources. Plant biotechnology and, in future, nanotechnology, can bolster plant-breeding efforts to meet these new challenges in a sustainable way (Helmke and Minerick 2006). Conventional plant breeding is often limited by reproductive barriers. The developments in the area of plant biology in the past three decades, such as plant genetic transformation, have opened up new vistas in crop improvement, thereby allowing transfer of desirable gene(s) across species and genera (overruling cross-ability barriers that limit the scope of conventional breed-