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Agricultural biotechnology, also known as agritech, is an area of agricultural science involving the use of scientific tools and techniques, including genetic engineering, molecular markers, molecular diagnostics, vaccines, and tissue culture, to modify living organisms: plants, animals, and microorganisms. [1]
Biotechnology has several applications in the realm of food security. Crops like Golden rice are engineered to have higher nutritional content, and there is potential for food products with longer shelf lives. [92] Though not a form of agricultural biotechnology, vaccines can help prevent diseases found in animal agriculture.
According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), in 2014 approximately 18 million farmers grew biotech crops in 28 countries; about 94% of the farmers were resource-poor in developing countries. 53% of the global biotech crop area of 181.5 million hectares was grown in 20 developing countries. [89]
The ISAAA receives funding from both public and private donors. Some of the ISAAA's funding agencies and companies include the USDA, US Grains Council, Monsanto, Bayer, two banks – Fondazione Bussolera in Italy and Ibercaja in Spain, USAID and the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II.
Furthermore, this application of effective microorganism biotechnology spans a range of agricultural areas, including soil rejuvenation, crop cultivation, livestock farming, and food preservation. These biopreparations prove particularly beneficial for land preparation and field preparation.
Cellular agriculture focuses on the production of agricultural products from cell cultures using a combination of biotechnology, tissue engineering, molecular biology, and synthetic biology to create and design new methods of producing proteins, fats, and tissues that would otherwise come from traditional agriculture. [1]
Bioprospecting (also known as biodiversity prospecting) is the exploration of natural sources for small molecules, macromolecules and biochemical and genetic information that could be developed into commercially valuable products for the agricultural, [2] [3] aquaculture, [4] [5] bioremediation, [4] [6] cosmetics, [7] [8] nanotechnology, [4] [9] or pharmaceutical [2] [10] industries.
In 1999, the National Institute of Biotechnology was established as the centre of excellence in biotechnological education. [1] To accelerate multidimensional biotechnological research, in 2006, the government adopted the national policy guidelines on biotechnology which was approved by the National Task force on biotechnology. [2]