Importance of Biotechnologyb :
Biotechnology, a dynamic new science that uses genetic engineering to enhance the output and value of many agricultural products, may hold the key to helping stop world hunger. Biotechnology offers farmers around the world improved efficiencies and potential profits when managed wisely and with regulatory oversight based on sound science. The improved economics begin on the farm. Already, the proliferation of biotechnology is redefining current systems of price discovery, consumer desire for information on food, and drastically changing our grain handling systems and trade management never before has the farmer been so involved with the entire food chain. Historically, the role of the commodity farmer ended at the farm gate; but today that position has changed. Most farmers today understand the need to address the concerns of their customers and the importance of protecting the integrity of the markets they rely on. That’s why responsible and accountable management by biotechnology providers, farmers, suppliers and grain merchandisers is imperative. But it is the promise of biotechnology that has farmers more fully engaged in protecting the technology.

When the first human beings realized that they could plant their own crops and breed their own animals, they learned to use biotechnology. The discovery that fruit juices fermented into wine, or that milk could be converted into cheese or yogurt, or that beer could be made by fermenting solutions of malt and hops began the study of biotechnology. When the first bakers found that they could make a soft, spongy bread rather than a firm, thin cracker, they were acting as fledgling biotechnologists. The first animal breeders, realizing that different physical traits could be either magnified or lost by mating appropriate pairs of animals, engaged in the manipulations of biotechnology.

What then is biotechnology? The term brings to mind many different things. Some think of developing new types of animals. Others dream of almost unlimited sources of human therapeutic drugs. Still others envision the possibility of growing crops that are more nutritious and naturally pest-resistant to feed a rapidly growing world population. This question elicits almost as many first-thought responses as there are people to whom the question can be posed.