By
George Royal
Agricultural biotechnology is any technique in which living
organisms, or parts of organisms are altered to make or modify
agricultural products, to improve crops, or develop microbes for
specific uses in agricultural processes. Simply put, when the tools of
biotechnology are applied to agriculture, it is termed as "agricultural
biotechnology". Genetic engineering is also a part of agricultural
biotechnology in today's world. It is now possible to carry out genetic
manipulation and transformation on almost all plant species, including
all the world's major crops.
Plant transformation is one of the
tools involved in agricultural biotechnology, in which genes are
inserted into the genetic structure or genome of plants. The two most
common methods of plant transformation are Agrobacterium Transformation -
methods that use the naturally occurring bacterium; and Biolistic
Transformation - involving the use of mechanical means. Using any of
these methods the preferred gene is inserted into a plant genome and
traditional breeding method followed to transfer the new trait into
different varieties of crops.
Production of food crops has become
much cheaper and convenient with the introduction of agricultural
biotechnology. Specific herbicide tolerant crops have been engineered
which makes weed control manageable and more efficient. Pest control has
also become more reliable and effective, eliminating the need for
synthetic pesticides as crops resistant to certain diseases and insect
pests have also been engineered. Phytoremediation is the process in
which plants detoxify pollutants in the soil, or absorb and accumulate
polluting substances out of the soil. Several crops have now been
genetically engineered for this purpose for safe harvest and disposal,
and improvement of soil quality.
According to the USDA (United
States Department of Agriculture)'s National Agricultural Statistics
Service (NASS), in reference to a section specific to the major
biotechnology derived field crops, out of the whole crop plantings in
the United States in 2004, biotechnology plantings accounted for about
46 percent for corn, 76 percent for cotton, and 85 percent for soybeans.
