Ag biotech solves every ecological impact – soil, herbicides, pesticides, water, and pharma

4.0 Application of biotechnology for sustainable agriculture

The continuing increase in the world’s population, coupled with the limitations in the supply of natural resources, loss of usable lands, climate change, and widespread degradation of the environment, presents a significant challenge to agricultural scientists today. Biotechnology will provide alternative methods to current approaches to improve the environment and agricultural system [24]. Biotechnology can reduce fertilizer and pesticide application in the current agricultural production system. Reduced application of inorganic pesticides and fertilizers can improve soil, air, and water quality. Biotechnology can be an effective strategic approach to developing different high-yielding and stress-tolerant crop varieties [25].

Recent advancements in biotechnology research have primarily focused on elucidating the underlying molecular mechanisms of diverse metabolic processes and applying this knowledge towards improving crop and animal yield. Genetic engineering offers a more precise and quicker method of gene transfer than conventional crossbreeding. By genetic modification, the nutritional profile of crops can be improved, and herbicide, pest, and disease-resistant varieties can be produced. Abiotic stress is a critical hindrance to agricultural productivity, and plants possessing stress tolerance characteristics such as drought, cold, and salinity tolerance can allow farmers to utilize previously unusable land. Genetic mapping can effectively screen for essential traits that are otherwise difficult to trace using conventional breeding, thereby facilitating advanced plant breeding techniques [26,27]. Micropropagation offers the potential to generate multiple copies of cultivars within a short period, leading to faster breeding of improved varieties and serving the germplasm conservation [28].

Agricultural biotechnology involves the application of scientific tools and techniques such as genetic engineering, molecular biology, and micropropagation to modify plants, animals, and microorganisms. Agricultural biotechnology has the potential to provide the solution for major challenges in creating sustainable agriculture, such as growing enough food in provided limited space (loss of usable lands) and with limited resources (water scarcity) under different environmental stress (drought, salinity, high temperature) and using less synthetic fertilizer and pesticides. Ongoing research in biotechnology is expected to bring forth many more types of crops with varied uses in agriculture. For centuries, farmers have employed selective breeding to manipulate plants and animals with desirable traits. The recent surge in biotechnology has enabled the development of molecular tools to identify crucial traits such as increased yield, pest resistance, drought resistance, and herbicide resistance, which can be subsequently modified in crops for the desired traits (Table 1). Future advancements may enable biotechnology to provide consumers with nutritionally enriched foods that last longer. Biotechnology also holds promise in the production of new medicines through genetically engineered crops (plant-based vaccines and antibodies), leading to a new sustainable plant-made pharmaceutical industry that reduces production costs.

Apart from crop production, biotechnology also holds the potential for soil quality improvement through phytoremediation. Biotechnology can also help conserve natural resources, enhance nutrient utilization by plants, reduce nutrient runoff, increase soil organic carbon sequestration, and meet increasing food and land demands by producing hardier crops that thrive in harsh environments with minimal inputs of fuel, labor, fertilizer, and water. The use of biotechnology in agriculture has enabled the development of crops that are resistant to devastating diseases. For instance, the papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) threatened the Hawaiian papaya industry until genetically engineered rainbow papayas resistant to the disease were created [31]. This breakthrough saved the US papaya industry, and research is ongoing for other crops such as potatoes, squash, and tomatoes, to provide resistance to viral diseases that are challenging to control. Biotech crops have the potential to increase farming profitability by improving crop yields, nutrient use efficiency, resistance to biotic and abiotic stress, and nutritional profile.