Question: Elaborate on the application of biotechnology in agriculture. Answer: Biotechnology refers to the means and ways of manipulating life forms (organisms) to provide desirable products for man’s use. Depending on the tools and applications, it often overlaps with the related fields of bioengineering and biomedical engineering. Thus, biotechnology can be understood as the application of biological organisms, systems, or processes by various industries to learning about the science of life and the improvement of the value of materials and organisms such as pharmaceuticals crops and livestock. Biotech thus has widespread use in today’s world with particular impact on agriculture. 1. The recombant DNA, rDNA, has been used to combat one of the greatest problems in plant food production: the destruction of crops by plant viruses. Eg: by transferring protein-coat of the Zucchini yellow mosaic virus to squash plants, which had previously sustained great damage from it. Transgeneric squash plants with immunity to this virus were developed. 2. Biofertilizers, which contain living organisms which when applied to the seed, plant surface, or soil, colonizes the rhizophere and promotes growth by increasing the supply or availability of primary nutrients to the host plants. Eg: following the application of Blue Green Algae to the rice crops, yield was increased from 3% to 14%. This also led to the development of newer formulations with longer shelf life. 3. Biological control of Pests is a method of controlling pests that relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory or other natural phenomenon. Through the introduction of biocontrol agents produced by two pilot plant units at Madurai and Coimbatore, success has been achieved in controlling pests in the farmers’ field like Earlas, Aphis, Bemisia etc. 4. Genetically Modified (GM) food stands for food that has its genetic make-up altered. A GM crop generally contains one or more genes, which have been artificially inserted. This enables plants to become stronger against any virus attack. These crops are cheaper to grow, thus keeps the prices down. They also enable food to have more of the qualities that the consumer wants. However use of GM foods is still under scrutiny for lack of knowledge regarding their impact on other organisms. Therefore, biotechnology has certainly started a wave of revolution in agriculture, making it more sustainable and economical.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 19:21:19 +0000
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