Molecular crop breeding strategies food, health, environmental and industrial uses

Molecular crop breeding or crop biotechnology utilizes tools of biotechnology including genetic engineering or recombinant DNA technology and genomics which aid in the incorporation of traits which are either difficult or impossible or will take a very long time to undertake using conventional methods. Genetically modified (GM) crop varieties such as corn, cotton and potato which use less or no chemical pesticides have been developed and after stringent regulation during research and development (R&D) and commercialization and after passing science-based biosafety and food safety tests, are now available. These GM crop use less pesticides which means savings in production cost, and are safe to man and the environment. They also yield higher and give better quality, and thus, increasing their profitability to the farmers. Other traits in commercial transgenic crops are herbicide tolerance (soybean, corn, cotton) virus resistance (papaya, squash), modified oil composition (rapeseed oil) and longer shelf life and higher total solids (tomato). There are new crops and food products in the development stage which have better nutritional, postharvest and processing qualities. Likewise, crops are being developed which produce less wastes or which can extract pollutants and those which produce biodegradable polymers. In 1998, 27.8 million hectares all over the world were planted to GM or transgenic crops, including 63,000 for Bt cotton in China. Field tests have been conducted in Japan, India, Thailand and Malaysia. In the Philippines, application for field testing are being processed. In Japan, twenty transgenic products have been approved for confined planting, food and/or fred use. Progress in developing transgenic crops of desired traits is hampered by: (1) lack of basic knowledge on the underlying principles/mechanisms of specific phenomena (2) lack of appropriate genes and or knowledge in their interactions with other genes, (3) lack of complete regeneration system for the tissue culture of certain crops, and (4) high cost of the research in both the basic and applied aspects. Although the adoption of planting transgenic crops by farmers in the past two years has been phenomenal, their acceptance in many countries by the general public is hampered by: (1) a general lack of understanding and appreciation of the issues by the public brought about by lack of balanced information on the new technologies; (2) the aggressive vocal anti-biotechnology groups which question the biosafety, socio-economic and political issues confronting transgenic crops; (3) the lack of clear policy in many countries on the use of products containing or coming from transgenic crops; and (4) the lack of harmonious policy among countries in the production and importation of products containing or coming from transgenic crops