Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural biotechnology
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309170176
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Transgenic crops offer the promise of increased agricultural productivity and better quality foods. But they also raise the specter of harmful environmental effects. In this new book, a panel of experts examines: • Similarities and differences between crops developed by conventional and transgenic methods • Potential for commercialized transgenic crops to change both agricultural and nonagricultural landscapes • How well the U.S. government is regulating transgenic crops to avoid any negative effects. Environmental Effects of Transgenic Plants provides a wealth of information about transgenic processes, previous experience with the introduction of novel crops, principles of risk assessment and management, the science behind current regulatory schemes, issues in monitoring transgenic products already on the market, and more. The book discusses public involvementâ€"and public confidenceâ€"in biotechnology regulation. And it looks to the future, exploring the potential of genetic engineering and the prospects for environmental effects.

Author: Mao Chen
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 1486310923
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
Meeting future food needs without compromising environmental integrity is a central challenge for agriculture globally but especially for the Asia Pacific region – where 60% of the global population, including some of the world’s poorest, live on only 30% of the land mass. To guarantee the food security of this and other regions, growers worldwide are rapidly adopting genetically modified (GM) crops as the forerunner to protect against many biotic and abiotic stresses. Asia Pacific countries play an important role in this, with India, China and Pakistan appearing in the top 10 countries with acreage of GM crops, primarily devoted to Bt cotton. Genetically Modified Crops in Asia Pacific discusses the progress of GM crop adoption across the Asia Pacific region over the past two decades, including research, development, adoption and sustainability, as well as the cultivation of insect resistant Bt brinjal, drought-tolerant sugarcane, late blight resistant potato and biotech rice more specific to this region. Regulatory efforts of the Asia Pacific member nations to ensure the safety of GM crops to both humans and the environment are also outlined to provide impetus in other countries initiating biotech crops. The authors also probe into some aspects of gene editing and nanobiotechnology to expand the scope into next generation GM crops, including the potential to grow crops in acidic soil, reduce methane production, remove poisonous elements from plants and improve overall nutritional quality. Genetically Modified Crops in Asia Pacific provides a comprehensive reference not only for academics, researchers and private sectors in crop systems but also policy makers in the Asia Pacific region. Beyond this region, readers will benefit from understanding how GM crops have been integrated into many different countries and, in particular, the effects of the take-up of GM cropping systems by farmers with different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Author: Stads, Gert-Jan
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
Southeast Asia made considerable progress in building and strengthening its agricultural R&D capacity during 2000–2017. All of the region’s countries reported higher numbers of agricultural researchers, improvements in their average qualification levels, and higher shares of women participating in agricultural R&D. In contrast, regional agricultural research spending remained stagnant, despite considerable growth in agricultural output over time. As a result, Southeast Asia’s agricultural research intensity—that is, agricultural research spending as a share of agricultural GDP—steadily declined from 0.50 percent in 2000 to just 0.33 percent in 2017. Although the extent of underinvestment in agricultural research differs across countries, all Southeast Asian countries invested below the levels deemed attainable based on the analysis summarized in this report. The region will need to increase its agricultural research investment substantially in order to address future agricultural production challenges more effectively and ensure productivity growth. Southeast Asia’s least developed agricultural research systems (Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar) are characterized by low scientific output and researcher productivity as a direct consequence of severe underfunding and lack of sufficient well-qualified research staff. While Malaysia and Thailand have significantly more developed agricultural research systems, they still report key inefficiencies and resource constraints that require attention. Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam occupy intermediate positions between these two groups of high- and low-performing agricultural research systems. Growing national economies, higher disposable incomes, and changing consumption patterns will prompt considerable shifts in levels of agricultural production, consumption, imports, and exports across Southeast Asia over the next 20 to 30 years. The resource-allocation decisions that governments make today will affect agricultural productivity for decades to come. Governments therefore need to ensure the research they undertake is responsive to future challenges and opportunities, and aligned with strategic development and agricultural sector plans. ASTI’s projections reveal that prioritizing investment in staple crops will still trigger fastest agricultural productivity growth in Laos. However, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam could achieve faster growth over the next 30 years by prioritizing investment in research focused on fruit, vegetables, livestock, and aquaculture. In Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand, the choice between focusing on staple crops versus high-value commodities was less pronounced, but projections did indicate that prioritizing investments in oil crop research would trigger significantly lower growth in agricultural productivity.

Author: Andrew Flachs
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816539634
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
A single seed is more than just the promise of a plant. In rural south India, seeds represent diverging paths toward a sustainable livelihood. Development programs and global agribusiness promote genetically modified seeds and organic certification as a path toward more sustainable cotton production, but these solutions mask a complex web of economic, social, political, and ecological issues that may have consequences as dire as death. In Cultivating Knowledge anthropologist Andrew Flachs shows how rural farmers come to plant genetically modified or certified organic cotton, sometimes during moments of agrarian crisis. Interweaving ethnographic detail, discussions of ecological knowledge, and deep history, Flachs uncovers the unintended consequences of new technologies, which offer great benefits to some—but at others’ expense. Flachs shows that farmers do not make simple cost-benefit analyses when evaluating new technologies and options. Their evaluation of development is a complex and shifting calculation of social meaning, performance, economics, and personal aspiration. Only by understanding this complicated nexus can we begin to understand sustainable agriculture. By comparing the experiences of farmers engaged with these mutually exclusive visions for the future of agriculture, Cultivating Knowledge investigates the human responses to global agrarian change. It illuminates the local impact of global changes: the slow, persistent dangers of pesticides, inequalities in rural life, the aspirations of people who grow fibers sent around the world, the place of ecological knowledge in modern agriculture, and even the complex threat of suicide. It all begins with a seed.

Author: Ram Lakhan Singh
Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
ISBN: 0128122382
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Biotechnology for Sustainable Agriculture: Emerging Approaches and Strategies is an outstanding collection of current research that integrates basic and advanced concepts of agricultural biotechnology with future development prospects. Using biotechnology with sustainable agriculture effectively contributes to gains in agricultural productivity, enhanced food security, reduced poverty and malnutrition, and more ecologically sustainable means of food production. Written by a panel of experts, this book is unique in its coverage of the broad area of biotechnology for sustainable agriculture. It includes intriguing topics and discussions of areas such as recombinant DNA technology and genetic engineering. - Identifies and explores biotechnological tools to enhance sustainability - Encompasses plant and microbial biotechnology, nanotechnology and genetic engineering - Focuses on plant biotechnology and crop improvement to increase yield and resilience - Summarizes the impact of climate change on agriculture, fisheries and livestock

Author: Asian Development Bank
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural biotechnology
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
This book is based on a study conducted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), together with the Australian Centre for International, Agricultural Research and the Australian Agency for International Development, to examine the opportunities and risks of using biotechnology in reducing poverty and achieving food security in Asia.

Author: Jennie S. Popp
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107375673
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
A challenge of our generation is the creation of an efficient system providing sustainable food and fuel from the land whilst also preserving biodiversity and ecosystems. We must feed a human population that is expected to grow to more than nine billion by mid-century. Agricultural biotechnology is one tool that holds potential promise to alleviate hunger and poverty. However, there are complex and interrelated scientific, social, political and ethical questions regarding the widespread use of biotechnology in the food supply. This edited volume discusses diverse perspectives on sustainable food production systems in terms of challenges, opportunities, success stories, barriers and risks associated with agricultural and food biotechnology. The effects of biotechnology on the environment, ethical and moral issues, potential changes to government policies and economics, and social implications are summarised. This book will interest students, professionals and researchers from the areas of bioengineering, agriculture and ecosystem science to economics and political science.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030916933X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Genetic-based animal biotechnology has produced new food and pharmaceutical products and promises many more advances to benefit humankind. These exciting prospects are accompanied by considerable unease, however, about matters such as safety and ethics. This book identifies science-based and policy-related concerns about animal biotechnologyâ€"key issues that must be resolved before the new breakthroughs can reach their potential. The book includes a short history of the field and provides understandable definitions of terms like cloning. Looking at technologies on the near horizon, the authors discuss what we know and what we fear about their effectsâ€"the inadvertent release of dangerous microorganisms, the safety of products derived from biotechnology, the impact of genetically engineered animals on their environment. In addition to these concerns, the book explores animal welfare concerns, and our societal and institutional capacity to manage and regulate the technology and its products. This accessible volume will be important to everyone interested in the implications of the use of animal biotechnology.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309034345
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 97

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Book Description
"The book...is, in fact, a short text on the many practical problems...associated with translating the explosion in basic biotechnological research into the next Green Revolution," explains Economic Botany. The book is "a concise and accurate narrative, that also manages to be interesting and personal...a splendid little book." Biotechnology states, "Because of the clarity with which it is written, this thin volume makes a major contribution to improving public understanding of genetic engineering's potential for enlarging the world's food supply...and can be profitably read by practically anyone interested in application of molecular biology to improvement of productivity in agriculture."