Biotechnological applications for increasing productivity of vegetable crops

Biotechnology has emerged as a modern tool for improvement in food crop production. There is a pressing need to enhance and stabilize food production in response to mounting demographic pressures and increasing poverty. In this area of agricultural science, agricultural biotechnology or agritech modify living organisms with the aim to improve plants or develop microorganisms for specific uses. Various scientific tools and techniques are employed, ranging from traditional biotechnology such as plant tissue culture to modern biotechnology such as genetic engineering of plants. Still the traditional plant breeding based on hybridization followed by selection and evaluation of a large population in the field, accounts for over 50% of the global increase in agricultural productivity. Also, new varieties have been bred worldwide in response to the changing needs of agriculture.