Environmental sustainability & reduced chemical inputs
The potential of genetic engineering contributes to environmental sustainability by decreasing the reliance on chemical inputs in agriculture. A significant environmental benefit of genetically modified crops is their ability to engineer resistance to pests & diseases directly into the plant, which decreases the need for chemical pesticides, which in turn helps in reducing the environmental impact that is associated with their use.
For example, crops that are engineered for specific herbicides with resistance help in more targeted & controlled weed management. Farmers can utilize particular herbicides even without affecting the genetically modified crops, which would lead to a reduction in the overall herbicide usage, decreasing the ecological impact of non-target organisms.
Furthermore, there can be preservation of biodiversity can be achieved by avoiding the indiscriminate usage of broad-spectrum pesticides and this can be done through the cultivation of genetically modified crops with built-in resistance to pests such a kind of approach facilitates maintaining a more balanced ecosystem in the agricultural area.
“Most seed breeding organizations have undertaken extensive R&D initiatives with an aim to make the resulting crops disease-resistant and these businesses are devoting resources to the development of disease detection systems,” says Venkatram Vasantavada, Managing Director & CEO, Seedworks International.
Some of the top companies in the Genetically Modified Seeds market include Bayer CropScience, Syngenta, Monsanto and others.
