Prof John Fagan, associate director, Institute of Science Technology and Public Policy, Ottawa, USA, was here to deliver a lecture on' Food Safety and Food Security in the era of Climate Change and Biotechnology&aposat the Guru Nanak Dev University.
He said although the biotech industry has developed GM varieties of many major crops and governments have approved these crops for commercialisation, farmers have refused them as some negative effects were seen on maize, soy, cotton and rapeseed.
Prof Fagan said, when farmers were given the opportunity to make an&aposinformed&aposchoice regarding whether or not to adopt GM crops, they rejected them. As a result, only four major GM crops of maize, soy, cotton, and rapeseed, have been commercialised, he added.
He said scientists have now developed much more effective and safer approaches such as Marker Assisted Breeding that use cutting edge discoveries in modern genetic science to develop new and valuable crop varieties more rapidly, economically and safely.