With the rise in population creating a food security crisis in various parts of the World, the high increase of people suffering from starvation as a result has brought about modification in ways in which food is produced. This has shifted the focus to bio technology which enhances the production of more farm produce on less land by reducing the amount of crops lost to pests and diseases and harsh environmental conditions. By reducing the amount of pests and diseases that affect plants including the amount of water that is needed to sustain them, biotechnology has proven to contribute a number of benefits to farmers in the following ways.
The first benefit of biotechnology is that it has helped improve food farming processes and farming methods is by crossbreeding plants and animals in order to obtain certain traits that enable plants and animals to survive under extreme weather conditions and pest and diseases attacks. This is due to the fact that modern scientist are able to use biotechnology technique to move particular weather resistant or pest and disease resistant genes that is valuable to one plant and move it to another plant, resulting to a lot of benefits to the farmer by cutting losses. Crops designed through biotechnology methods can thrive under harsh conditions such as drought, hence benefiting the farmer in reducing the amount of crop lost to extreme weather conditions.
Another benefit of biotechnology is the fact that it increases the output in terms of quantity. This is beneficial to farmers because biotech crops or genetically modified crops tend to increase their output even when grown in less acreage of land, reducing the amount of land needed to sustain mass production of crops in large scale volumes in places where there is scarcity. Through biotechnology, farmers get an increased amount in productivity and a higher crop yield that by extension enable them to get more income after selling their produce, leading to consistent food supply which helps in developing the economy in a greater extent. See this latest Biotechnology Publication Updates Biotechnology.
The other benefit of biotechnology in crops is that biotech food or genetically modified food is nutritionally enhanced to have more benefit to the consumers. This is down to the fact that biotech or genetically modified food when being developed is engineered to add nutritional benefits to consumers by having increased amounts of vitamins such as iron, carotene among others. Through biotechnology, biotechnology scientists and engineers have come up with ways in which plant produce food that has few allergens and other health affecting proteins which cause allergic reactions in people, and add nutrients that are more beneficial to consumers.
Biotech food or genetically modified produce in the make of fruits and vegetables have higher levels of vitamins, minerals, and protein. Also, biotech foods or genetically modified food have a higher shelf life hence provide consumers with products that stay fresh longer and are not fragile, giving consumers a time frame to transport them to large distances without the fear of reaching the intended destinations when they are perished. Read more about this Biotechnology Publication Updates Biotechnology here.
