Contribution of Genetically Modified Crops in Agricultural Production: Success Stories

Abstract One of the great challenges for the scientists of today is to provide adequate nutrition for an increasing global population by developing more socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable agriculture. Despite urbanization, agriculture is still the backbone of the economic of many countries worldwide, not only by providing food and raw material but also employment opportunities to the chunk of population around the globe. The agriculture sector faces many challenges of land management, low farm yield and profitability, etc. The advent of biotechnology in the last decade of 20th century has changed the gear of agriculture production. The genetic barriers in conventional breeding have successfully been addressed by modern-day technologies and researchers are now able to engineer traits of economic importance among distant species. We have already witnessed the contribution of commercialized GM cotton, soybean, maize, eggplant, and canola toward increased farm productivity. The commercialization of Bt cowpea and cotton in African countries and Golden Rice in Philippines will open further avenues of sustainable production. In this book chapter, we have discussed the production and commercialization of GM crops with their impact on agricultural productivity.