Development of biotechnological agriculture for its economic benefits in developing countries: Analysis and suggestions

The first commercialization of genetically engineered crops emerged during the 1990s and since that time controversies have existed around the science based biotechnological agricultural sector. The top three developing countries in biotech-based agriculture growth in 2017, Argentina, Brazil, and India, will be compared between 2000 and 2017 according to global gain in biotech crops per country, gain in global hectares per country, and farm income gain per country. The regulatory approval process of these countries will be compared to the EU's precautionary principle-based approval process. This paper will illustrate the effects of how these three countries and their progressive regulatory approval systems for biotech crops contributed to increased socio-economic benefits for their respective countries. For those developing countries which are either non-participating or in the elementary stages of commercialization desiring to economically benefit through the production of genetically modified crops, the lack of a progressive and effective approval system hinders potential progress. This comparison of the current U.S. genetically modified regulatory policies with the European regulatory policy will further strengthen the suggestion of lost opportunities due to the influences of the precautionary principle and the role of global public opinion.