Understanding Genetically Modified Crops (GMOs): Benefits, Risks, and Future Prospects

Genetically modified (GM) crops have revolutionized the agricultural sector by allowing scientists to rapidly introduce novel genes for desirable traits such as herbicide tolerance, pest resistance, bio-fortification, and disease resistance from one species to another, which are becoming difficult to achieve using conventional breeding methods. GM crops have improved the overall productivity of many crops, contributing positively to food security. In the past few decades, GM crops have shown significant positive effects, especially effective weed and pest management. Because of this success, GM crops in the past few decades have expanded up to 2.15 billion hectares globally. Despite these benefits, there are some serious potential issues associated with GMOs that have to be addressed such as weeds becoming resistant to herbicides due to their extensive use in GM crops, the potential threat of insects becoming resistant to CRY protein released by Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) crops, and the issues of biosafety and biodiversity of other plant and animal species linked with GM crops directly or indirectly. The review explores the basic techniques used to develop GM crops and explains the benefits of GMO crops in the field of agriculture, especially in weed management, disease resistance, and bio-fortification. And also, it highlights the prospects and examines the risks associated with GMO crops.