A CRITICAL STATEMENT TO GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS (GMC)

ALTUNTAŞ B., BEYAZ R., YILDIZ M.

FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN, cilt.29, sa.9A, ss.8719-8726, 2020 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 29 Sayı: 9A
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Dergi Adı: FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Aerospace Database, Agricultural & Environmental Science Database, Aqualine, Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), CAB Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts Core, Communication Abstracts, Environment Index, Geobase, Greenfile, Metadex, Pollution Abstracts, Veterinary Science Database, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.8719-8726
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Genetically Modified Crops (GMC), Benefit, Adverse Effect, FIELD PERFORMANCE, PLANTS, TRANSFORMATION, RESISTANCE, SOIL
  • Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

It is estimated that the world's population will be 8 billion in 2020 and 11 billion in 2050 with an increase ratio of 1.5%. Cultivated areas cover 3% of the total world surface. However, these areas are getting narrowed down rapidly due to erosion, salinity, acidity, intensive agriculture and extreme grazing. With the effects of all these factors and increasing population, it is estimated that the per capita cultivated area will decrease from 0.26 to 0.15 hectare in 2050. Additionally, finding the required water resources for modern agriculture will be more difficult because of increasing water consumption and water pollution. On the other hand, food production will be negatively affected by the changes in the world's climate caused by global warming. Environmental conditions are being changed under the pressure of the rapidly increasing world population, and cultivated areas have reached their limits. This is why new varieties should be improved for continuous yield increase. Conventional plant breeding has some disadvantages due to the fact that hybridization is possible only among a limited number of genera, transition of undesired properties along with desired characters to the progeny cannot be prevented, and elimination of undesired properties by means of back-crossing takes too much time. This is why, in order to provide yield increase, biotechnological methods which are complementary of conventional plant breeding programs have been widely used. The sowing area of genetically modified crops, which firstly started to be cultivated in 2.8 million hectares in 1996, reached to over 200 million hectares nowadays. Recently, significant success was achieved in increasing crop quality and obtaining varieties resistant against herbicides, diseases and pests by using genes based on bacteria and viruses. Despite all benefits of genetically modified crops, due to carrying genes that do not belong to their own genus and negative results reported by scientific studies, their possible risks have come into question.