Novel Traits in Novel Crops:Fueling the Growth of Agrobiotechnology

Biotechnology has contributed greatly to improvements in agriculture during the past decades. Advances have been most spectacular in the fi eld of herbicide and insect resistance and have benefi ted primarily four major crops,

Bioteehnology has contributed greatly to improvements in agriculture during the past decades. Advances have been most spectacular in the field of herbicide and insect resistance and have benefited primarily four major crops, being maize, soybean, cotton and oilseed rape. Bioteehnology has so far not accomplished similar progress with regard to other key agricultural traits, such as yield, drought tolerance, or plant composition, primarily because of a lack of knowledge of the underlying molecular mechanisms. In addition, GM traits have not been marketed in other important food crops such as rice, wheat and potato, as the governmental support for a wider adoption of GM crops has been minimal in the past ten years. This has particularly been the case in parts of Europe and Asia, but the consequences were global, due to the international trade of agricultural products.