Climate Change: Genetically Modified Crops as A Mitigating Measure

Agriculture is an essential sector of the Indian economy and delivers food and livelihood activities for most of the Indian population. Indian agricultural is totally depends on climate and climate change is affecting it to a great extent. While the magnitude of impact differs greatly by region, climate change is projected to impact on crops yields, nutritious value of food and shifting cropping patterns. The continuous increase the CO₂ emission leads to increase the temperature of the earth's atmosphere. This results in melting of glaciers, unpredictable rainfall patterns, and extreme weather condition. The accelerating pace of climate change, combined with Indian's population and depletion of agricultural resources threatens food security and livelihood activities in India. Genetically Modified (GM) crops can be used as a mitigating measure for climate change. GM crops for the last 20 years of commercialization have been contributing to the reduction of CO₂ emissions and therefore mitigate climate change. In addition to it GM crops also leads to use less and environmentally friendly energy and fertilizers in agriculture and practice soil carbon sequestration. This informative paper aims to explore the implications of climate change may have on Indian agriculture and the role of gene technology could play in contributing to climate change solutions.