Transgenic plants: role in agriculture-A review

Genetic modification of plants has been the basis for the betterment of crops in modern agriculture. Since prehistoric times, farmers have practiced seed selection that resulted in better crops and yields. Hybridization followed by selection has led to the evolution of a wide range of crops and varieties. The power of these practices was greatly enhanced in the 20^th century with the application of science of genetics leading to modern hybrid varieties of food crops like maize, sorghum, pearl millet and high yielding inbred varieties in self pollinated crops like rice and wheat. Despite the spectacular success in agriculture growth and food production largely ushered by Green Revolution technologies, the sustainability of such production advance is threatened due to population increase, depletion of natural resources-land and water and destabilizing factors such as biotic and abiotic stresses. Amidst these challenges the only way to expand production is to develop and deploy technologies that enhance output per unit of the input. The recent developments in new biology collectively known as Biotechnology promise to not only enhance productivity further, but also to address a wider range of constraints to production both in high production environment and also in grey and fragile areas.