Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
suicides in India to the declining performance of Bt cotton for
the first time. Consequently, in 2012, Bt cotton was banned in
Maharashtra and there were orders for its socio-economic stud-
ies to be conducted by independent institutes.
A variety of ethical issues are raised in response to the use
of genetic engineering for enhancing agricultural productivity
under changing environmental conditions. The ethical prin-
ciple of beneficence demands action to eliminate hunger and
disease. Keeping this in mind, the core ethical values should
provide guidance in research, to modify nature in the service
of human needs. There should be a balance between the need
for technological advancement with the duty to protect and pre-
serve our environment for future generations.
5.6
Nanotechnology as an alternative to GM crops
Food security is one of the biggest challenges in the current
scenario, especially in developing countries. To meet this chal-
lenge, several methods such as crop management, crop improve-
ment and crop protection from pests and diseases have been
employed since time immemorial so as to enhance the growth
and productivity of crops. Although these conventional methods
and improved technologies are successful in enhancing the pro-
ductivity of crops, due to certain limitations they are unable to
break through some of the bottlenecks in agriculture. The con-
ventional breeding methods under crop improvement for devel-
oping high-yielding varieties with desired traits such as stress
tolerance (biotic/abiotic), herbicide tolerance, insect resistance
and so on, are successful, but they are time consuming because
it takes years to develop a new variety. Conversely, the genetic
engineering approach is much faster, but not equally accepted
worldwide due to various limitations associated with it. For
example, the GE insect-resistant plants exert their effect only
on being chewed by the insects; this means that the plant has to
get damaged unnecessarily. In some cases, the insects may also
acquire resistance against the bacterial toxins used in GE crops.
Similarly, weed varieties also become resistant to herbicides.
Therefore, despite the efforts made by the scientists, productivity
could not realise its potential. Recently, the emergence of nano-
technology and its application in agriculture has raised hopes for
improving agricultural productivity by overcoming the problems
encountered in conventional agricultural practices. Although
nanoparticles are comparatively very small in size (Figure 5.1),
they have far-reaching consequences on the biological system.
