Biotechnology in crop protection and production. Part 1 - Commercial developments

摘要

Despite the fact that genetic modification by foreign gene insertion is a relatively new technique the rate of adoption of modern biotechnology methods by plant breeders for commercial applications has been rapid. During 1999, the pace of biotechnology driven developments in new crop varieties continued unabated and while most of the commercial plantings occurred in the Americas, research and development projects were carried out on essentially a global basis. Although the area of GM (genetically modified) crops grown commercially is largely confined to North and South America there was a substantial increase in the overall planted area. At the same time the overall scope of available and potential genetically modified crop traits increased.