Thread:Solarx 64/@comment-35361112-20190416214803

In my opinion, a good example of their success is India.

Farmers in the country currently lose some Rs50,000 crore ($5 billion) every year to pests and diseases. Droughts, coupled with a lack of irrigation facilities, are exacerbating the problem.

Scientists already have a solution: genetically modified (GM) crops that can withstand pests and droughts. Genetic modification in crops involves altering a seed’s DNA in order to, say, increase its resistance to pests and insects. These changes can mean a huge boost to productivity and overall food supply. In the West, GM foods are fairly common; the US, for instance, cultivates eight crops using this technology. In India, there’s just one: Bt cotton. Bt stands forBacillus thuringiensis, a bacteria that naturally produces a protein—a biological pesticide—that kills the common crop pest bollworm. It was approved for use in India in 2002, and since then has helped make the country the second-largest cotton manufacturer in the world. Today, GM seeds account for over 90% of cotton sown in India. 