- Sandhya Subramanian
Biotechnology, the branch of science which does wonders, has contributed greatly to the field of agricultural sciences. The research and development in biotechnology has triggered the creative ability of the scientists to envision a future that we currently live in. The invention of genetic engineering, tissue culture, genetically modified organisms etc. have revolutionized the world. This technology has enabled us to move forward and introduce disease resistance crops, improve animal feed efficiency, improve crop yield, produce enzymes that could possible lead to a better yield from animals and plants and creation of genetically engineered organisms which enable plants to enhance their absorption of nitrogen gases without petrochemical inputs that are harmful to the environment. Such innovations are tremendously useful for the farmers as it will enable them to eliminate their dependence on chemical fertilizers, which could result in substantial economic benefits for the farmer.
It also leads to better disease control and increased tolerance to drought and flooding. But as every coin has two sides, they could equally pose a threat to the health of the farmers. The newly synthesized genes in the GMO’s may induce health risk to the farmers. The long term effects of handling GMO’s may lead to health related problems. Some farmers may become develop allergens and become allergic to such crops which prevents them from working with such advanced crops. Thus this jeopardizes them to work with the original crops ergo they put in more efforts than required to reach the desired level of output.
There may also be the threat of potentially dangerous microorganisms leaking or escaping into the environment leading to epidemics. Thus in order to avoid this, GM crops must be evaluated prior to their release. Checking for the malfunctioned cellular materials that grow during the upstream processing, meeting the FDA requirements, checking for the mutated or harmful protein in the recombination stage itself or even DNA purification. Such methods can be employed in order to prevent unnecessary chemical reactions from taking place which could otherwise affect the farmer’s health in a negative way.
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