GS3 · 10 marks · 150 words

"Genome-edited crops have the potential to strengthen food and nutritional security in the country." Examine.

Answered by 3 toppers · CSE 2025

BiotechnologyFood Security and PDSCrops and Cropping Patterns

Syllabus: Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices; Public Distribution System- objectives, functioning, limitations, revamping; issues of buffer stocks and food security; Technology missions; economics of animal-rearing.

How toppers approached it

From all 3 answers · about 160 words.

Opening

  • No separate opening2 of 3
  • A definition1 of 3

Body

  • Points3 of 3

Close

  • A way forward3 of 3

The toppers’ answers

Ujjwal PriyankAIR 10 · CSE 2025 · 154 wordsTheir whole copy

Opening

The recent surge in biotechnology in India has been due to widespread research on hybrid seeds, genome-edited crops etc. It definitely has the potential to strengthen food and nutritional security in country in different ways.

Body · points

  1. Genome-edited crops can face and resist severe pest attacks. Eg: use of Bt-cotton

  2. Application in climate-resilient agriculture to tolerate extreme conditions

  3. Resisting herbicides and insecticides Eg: DMH-11 for mustard.

  4. Enriching nutrients for solving hidden hunger and biofortification

  5. Enhanced productivity of crops and better nutritional value.

However there are certain limitation to the use of genome-edited crops →

  1. Issues with gene-editing leading changes in the original quality.
  2. Poor adoption by small farmers. ↳ 86% farmers are small in scale with less than 2 hectare land.
  3. Reduced public expenditure on research innovation and development.

Close · a way forward

To realise the dream of $300 billion biotechnology market by 2030, India must leverage the benefits of quality research.

More on Biotechnology

Genetic modification, gene editing, vaccines and biopharma, biosafety regulation, agricultural biotech.

All GS3 questions on Biotechnology