How Does Biotechnology Help Agriculture

 

Biotechnology allows farmers to grow more food on less land using farming practices that are environmentally sustainable. Through biotechnology: Seeds yield more per acre, plants naturally resist specific insect pests and diseases, and farming techniques improve soil conservation. Farmers and ranchers can help plants and animals fight diseases and adapt to environmental stress and climate change. We can enhance the nutritional content of foods and improve human health through plant- and animal-produced therapies.

Biotechnology provides farmers with tools that can make production cheaper and more manageable. For example, some biotechnology crops can be engineered to tolerate specific herbicides, which make weed control simpler and more efficient.

Biotechnology has many other useful applications besides those that are medically related. Many of these are in agriculture and food science. These include the development of transgenic crops - the placement of genes into plants to give the crop a beneficial trait. The benefits of biotechnology are especially meaningful at a time when our global population is growing and our demand for food is increasing, especially in developing countries.