Genetically Modified Crops for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Indian Scenario

Genetic engineering (GE) is a powerful tool that allows the introduction of foreign DNA sequence(s) into plants resulting in the development of improved crops. Adoption of such genetically modified (GM) crops in the last two decades has been shown to benefit agriculture immensely, viz., higher crop yields with reduced input costs, development of crops resistant to a wide range of biotic and abiotic stresses, crops with improved nutritional quality, better shelf-life, and hence greater food security. GM crops developed using transgenic technology are currently grown in 29 countries spread across the globe, covering more than 190 million hectares of land. Among various commercialized GM crops, herbicide-tolerant and insect-resistant GM cotton, soybean, and maize have been in cultivation for more than 20 years in some parts of the world, proving the safety and benefits of such crops. However, in India, insect-resistant cotton is the only GM/transgenic crop approved so far for commercial cultivation, while Bt Brinjal developed in India is cultivated in Bangladesh. More recently, the Indian government allowed the environmental release of transgenic mustard, Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11, developed by a public sector institution. Further, several other crops are in the pipeline or awaiting regulatory approval. Considering the numerous challenges posed by agriculture to produce enough quality food to feed the growing population with depleting land availability, reduced water and other resources, GM crops have a huge potential to contribute to the food security of India and address global warming and other environmental issues. However, the adoption of GM crops having foreign gene(s) raises public concerns related to the potential adverse effect on the environment and human health, etc. To address such concerns, the adoption of alternative tools like genome editing (SDN-1 and SDN-II type) may be a viable approach since the transgene-free crop plants with the desirable traits can be generated using this novel tool. In this chapter, we briefly discuss the importance of GM crops in the context of agricultural sustainability and food as well as nutritional security in the Indian scenario.