Crop yields face numerous unfavorable factors, including rodents, weeds, nematodes, insect pests, viruses, bacteria, phytopathogenic fungi, adverse weather conditions, and soil erosion. Biotechnology offers significant potential to increase the efficiency of crop production. With the world’s growing population and its needs, the importance of biotechnology in crop production is ever-increasing. There are two major areas of biotechnology use in crop production: genetic modification through introducing genes from foreign organisms, resulting in genetically modified objects (GMO) and the use of natural reserves, such as extracts from mushrooms and plants, highly productive microorganisms, etc.
Science has developed several drugs that can solve various problems faced by agricultural producers. Biological products can be classified into plant growth regulators, plant protection products, and yield-increasing means. Biotechnologies (biological methods of exposure) through microorganisms are preferred in economically developed countries over GMO products. However, many companies worldwide use GMOs, not only in crop production but in other areas of activity.
Various biotechnological methods protect agricultural plants from damaging factors, including breeding varieties resistant to unfavorable factors, the use of chemical control agents (herbicides, pesticides, raticides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides), and biological methods of pest control based on the use of their natural parasites and enemies or toxic substances released by living organisms.
Increase in plant productivity means a focus on increasing the productivity of culture, nutritional value, breeding varieties that can grow in swampy or dry areas on saline soils. This aim is to increase the energy output of the processes in plant tissues such as absorption of the light energy, carbon dioxide, and water-salt metabolism.
Real advances in biotechnology include crop biotechnology in Australia, which produced eucalyptus trees (red gum trees) capable of growing on saline soil. An oil palm was also grown from a cell clone in Malaysia, and through cloning, screening and subsequent plant regeneration from selected clones, tree species such as conifers can be improved in temperate latitudes. Plants grown from the tissues of the meristem or cells are now adorned in counters in the form of strawberries, asparagus, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, pineapples, peaches, and bananas. Scientists hope to defeat viral plant diseases through cloning. Cell cloning is also a promising mechanism for industrial cultivation of products.