Enhancing Crop Productivity by Biotechnology

Food crises in the sixties led to the development of high yielding varieties of cereals particularly, rice and wheat which resulted into green revolution and food production was increased significantly. A rapidly expanding population is a serious concern for food security especially for developing countries including that of India. To keep pace with the present population growth and consumption pattern, India’s food requirement has been estimated to 225 million tons by the year 2005. Green revolution technologies, though contributing to food production, they are inadequate to meet the challenges lie ahead. Recently developed biotechnological techniques undoubtedly have major role to play in solving the food security problem, just as the green revolution had its origins in science and technology, and particularly in science of genetics. So the application of novel biotechnological tools could lead to gene revolution. With the wide spread of advanced cellular and gene technology, the new technologies will certainly help in enhancing the crop productivity.