Question

Explain the meaning of biotechnology and its impact on agricultural management with suitable examples.

Answer 1

Hint: Biotechnology covers many different areas like genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, etc. New technologies and products are developed every year within the areas of medicine (development of new medicines and therapies), agriculture (development of genetically modified plants, biofuels, and biological treatment) or industrial biotechnology (production of chemicals, paper, textiles and food).

Complete Answer:
Biotechnology is technology that utilizes biological systems, living organisms or parts of this to develop or create different products.
It is used in agriculture to improve or modify the crops to get a better variety.

Impact of biotechnology on agricultural management:
- Cross breeding of species to create a new and special variety with the desired traits of the parents.
- Creating mutations in the hopes of stumbling upon the desired trait. For mutagenesis, mutating chemicals such as ethyl methanesulfonate, or radioactivity is used.
- Inducing polyploidy naturally or through the use of chemicals to change the number of chromosomes to obtain fertility changes or size modification within the crop.
- Protoplast fusion, the joining of cells or cell components to transfer traits between species. For example, the trait of male sterility is transferred from radishes to red cabbages by protoplast fusion. This male sterility helps plant breeders make hybrid crops.
- RNA interference is done to stop the synthesis of proteins, effectively silencing a gene. It is a method of genetic modification that works by interfering with the messenger RNA.
- Transgenic crops are made with recombinant DNA technology to improve the features like increased pest resistant, higher variety, to improve the nutritional content, etc.
- Genome editing is the use of an enzyme system to modify the DNA directly within the cell. Genome editing is used to develop herbicide resistant canola to help farmers control weeds.

Note: The main aim of agricultural biotechnology is to introduce a new trait that does not occur naturally in the species. Biotechnology firms can contribute to future food security by improving the nutrition and viability of urban agriculture.