Contents - Faperta

Foreword
There has been an unprecedented rise in food prices in recent times, taking some basic
foods beyond the reach of the poor and imposing a crippling burden on the economies of
the poorest countries. Rising temperatures and climate change have also emerged as serious
challenges to crop production and food security. It is ironic, that, while on the one hand
there is a need to feed a world population that is expected to exceed 8 billion by the year
2025, on the other, cropland availability has been showing a declining trend. The decrease
in the availability of arable land is expected to be much greater in developing countries,
where most of the increase in population is expected to occur, than in developed countries.
Unless crop productivity is maximized from the available arable land, meeting the
increasing demand for food, feed, and fodder may no longer be possible. One of the areas
where a substantial increase in food production can be realized is through the reduction of
crop losses due to biotic stresses, which are now estimated at US$243.4 billion annually.
Massive applications of pesticides to minimize losses due to insect pests, diseases, and
weeds have resulted in high levels of pesticide residue in food and food products and has
had an adverse effect on the benefi cial organisms in the environment. A large number
of insect species have now developed high levels of resistance to currently available insecticides,
which has necessitated either the application of even higher doses or an increased
frequency of insecticide application. The use of biotechnological tools to minimize losses
due to insect pests has therefore become inevitable.
Though the Green Revolution led to signifi cant advances in crop improvement and crop
protection technologies, total food production and per capita availability of food have
stagnated over the past two decades. There is an urgent need to examine how the tools
of science can be used to increase crop productivity without any of the adverse impacts
on the environment. A substantial increase in food production can be realized through the
application of the modern tools of biotechnology for pest management. Signifi cant progress
has been made in the past two decades in using biotechnological tools to understand gene
structure and function, and in introducing exotic genes into crop plants for resistance to
insect pests. Toxin genes from the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis have been incorporated
into several crops and insect-resistant genetically-engineered cotton, corn, and potato are
now being cultivated over large areas of Asia, Africa, Australia, the Americas, and in some
parts of Europe.