World Cultivation of Genetically Modified Crops: Opportunities and Risks

The increase in population has exerted tremendous pressure on global food supply with more than one in every seven people suffering from lack of basic food or micronutrient malnourishment. Moreover, anthropogenic activities such as exhaustion of natural resources and global warming further aggravate the problem. Therefore, scientists are studying ways to ensure sustainable and equitable food security along with preservation of environment. With the advent of recombinant DNA technology in 1980s, transgenic crops have been adopted to increase both quality and quantity of food. There has been a remarkable progression in identifying ways to increase plant productivity, discover novel and active metabolites, alternative fuel sources, chemical factories synthesising animal proteins and antibiotics, using transgenic plants.