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Major Achievements of Plant Biotechnology in Crop Improvements

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Abstract or Summary

Biotechnology is any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for a specific use. Agricultural biotechnology is the area of biotechnology involving applications to agriculture. Based on an understanding of DNA, scientists have developed solutions to increase agricultural productivity. Integrating recombinant techniques into conventional breeding programs could substantially enhance the efficiency of agricultural research and development. Breeding could be accelerated due to the more targeted transfer of desired genes into the crop. The major transgenic breeding objectives are; improving the agronomic traits and quality traits of different crops. Deliberate alteration of the genome of an organism by introduction of one or a few specific foreign genes is referred to as ‘genetic engineering’ or ‘genetic transformation’, and the modified organism is described as a ‘transformed’ or ‘transgenic’ organism. Achievements of biotechnology in crops were producing Bt crops, herbicide resistance crops, salinity tolerant crops, drought-tolerant crops and so on. Genetically engineered crop varieties that farmers deploy. Transgenic crops, especially those with resistance to biotic and abiotic stress factors, fit well into small-scale farming systems and can easily be integrated without adjusting traditional cropping practices. The comparatively low setup cost for adopting genetically engineered technologies at the farm level also makes this technology useful for semi-subsistence agriculture. Plant tissue culture also one of the applications of biotechnology used to improve crops and used to increase the speed or efficiency of the breeding process, to improve the accessibility of existing germplasm and to create new variation for crop improvement. Generally, the role of crop biotechnology for food security and poverty reduction should not be overrated. Many problems in low- and middle-income countries are not amenable to technological solutions.

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