Genetically Modified (GM) crops across the World

October 18, 2012

Beginning  of the 19th century,  when global population was less than 1 billion in 1800, it was relatively easy to increase  food production over the next 100 years to feed another  0.6 billion, by simply increasing the area of cultivated land. In the 20th century (when world population was still only 1.6 billion in 1900), an increase  in global food production over the next 100 years was achieved mainly by increasing crop productivity (yield per hectare), through the green revolution and other agronomic improvements. Now when the availability of new arable land and use of fossil fuel is limited, GM crops are being looked at as a possible answer to the increasing yields to meet the food needs of the population that is expected to grow by 50% by 2050.