Benefits
Agricultural Biotechnology can meet the growing demand for food
Despite modern crop protection practices, estimates indicate that around 40% of the world's harvest is lost to pests, weeds and diseases. So far, with the help of advances in agricultural technologies, the world's total food supply has largely been able to keep pace with global demand. But with the world's population expected to increase to 8 billion by 2025 (source: United Nations Population Fund), the limited farmland we have will be put under even greater pressure to increase productivity. Additionally, consumers are demanding higher quality, more nutritious food. Given these challenges, we need to explore all of the possible solutions available to us.
Agricultural biotechnology provides one important way of helping to meet this need by developing plants with desirable traits from different organisms. This is not possible through conventional breeding techniques. One example already widely grown is corn (or maize) that can withstand insect attack through the incorporation of a gene from a common soil bacterium. Another example is herbicide tolerance in corn, using a gene from another common soil bacterium that allows the plants to withstand a specific herbicide, and helping to improve weed control options.
Agricultural biotechnology adoption is growing at an unprecedented rate because of the benefits it offers
The ISAAA, a non-profit organization that provides information on agricultural biotechnology, released a report estimating that the total global area of
transgenic crops planted in 2007 was over 143.7 million hectares. These crops were grown by 12 million farmers in 23 countries. For more information,
visit the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) website.
This unprecedented rate of adoption for genetically modified crops is due to the benefits that they can provide for agriculture, both in the field and beyond: economic benefits for farmers through yield protection, environmental advantages, and increasingly, direct benefits for consumers.
Biotech crops can prevent insect feeding damage
One of the early successes of biotechnology has been the ability to insert genes from a naturally occurring soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), into corn, cotton, and other crops to impart internal protection from insect feeding. For many farmers, Bt crops are proving to be a valuable tool for integrated pest management (IPM) programs by giving growers new pest control choices.
Biotech crops can improve weed control programs
Weeds reduce crop yield and quality, while raising costs to the grower and consumer. For decades, growers have used a combination of tillage (plowing) and herbicides to control weeds in crops. Advances in biotechnology have provided farmers with more options to make weed control more effective and more economical in soybeans and other crops by producing plants that are resistant to specific broad-spectrum herbicides such as glyphosate, which would otherwise damage the crop. Just as important, the use of herbicide tolerant crops can contribute to conservation tillage techniques that help to reduce soil erosion.
Biotech crops can prevent crop loss due to plant disease
Agricultural crops are exposed to numerous fungi and other sources of disease that can destroy crops in the field. Researchers at Syngenta have developed in-field diagnostic tests for crop disease to help farmers properly identify and treat problems as early as possible. Scientists are also exploring ways to insert new genes into specific crops to give immunity to key plant diseases, which can also improve the quality of the products. Effective insect control can even help contribute to improved disease control by decreasing insect damage to plants which can often serve as an entry for other types of plant diseases. This multi-tiered approach holds the promise of more effective control of plant diseases in the future.
Biotech crops can improve the efficiency of renewable fuel production
As more focus is put on renewable sources of power, many countries are looking to agriculture to supply energy. In both North and South America, there are
significant government subsidies for ethanol production from crops as a component of vehicle fuel. The United States Senate has called for a tripling of the
use of ethanol for this purpose. Ethanol from starch is produced by using an enzyme (amylase) to break down starch into sugars, which are then fermented by
yeast to produce alcohol.
Syngenta has a project in development to produce corn enhanced through biotechnology that expresses high levels of amylase. By using high amylase corn, it is
estimated that improved process efficiency could lead to substantial savings in the cost of production of ethanol.
Biotech crops can improve food quality
Another objective of Syngenta research is improving the quality and nutritional benefits of food crops. Syngenta is an important supporter of the Golden Rice humanitarian effort, which seeks to increase the nutritional value of rice, one of the staple food crops of the developing world.
