Contents - Faperta

19
Biotechnology, Pest Management, and
the Environment: The Future
Introduction
The world population is expected to exceed 8.0 billion by 2025, and over 800 million
people are food insecure. The availability of cropland is decreasing over time, and therefore
there is a need to increase crop productivity on the available arable land to meet the
increasing demand for food, fodder, and fuel in the future. Productivity gains are essential
not only for increasing food availability, but also for economic growth. One of the areas
where a substantial increase in food production can be realized is through the reduction
in crop losses due to biotic stresses, currently valued at US$243.4 billion (Oerke et al.,
1994). Among these, insect pests cause an estimated loss of US$90.4 billion. Massive application
of pesticides to minimize losses due to insect pests has resulted in adverse effects
on benefi cial organisms, pesticide residues in food, and environmental pollution. A large
number of insects have also developed high levels of resistance to commonly used insecticides
(Rajmohan, 1998). Development of resistance to insecticides has necessitated the
application of higher dosages of the same pesticide or more pesticide applications. It is in
this context that the modern tools of biotechnology can be used for pest management and
sustainable crop production (Table 19.1).
Genetic Engineering of Crops for Resistance to Insect Pests
Recombinant DNA technology offers the possibility of developing novel biological insecticides
that retain the advantages of classical biological control agents, but have fewer
or none of their drawbacks. In addition to widening the pool of useful genes, genetic