Genetically modified organisms - facts, expectations or fiction?

Balazs, Ervin

Genetically modified (GM) plants have already been cultivated for more than ten years with commercial purpose. The initial 1.6 million hectare per year expanded to more than 91 million by now. The expansion of the plant species produced by precision plant improvement is characteristic mainly of the most developed and the fastest developing countries. But this cropland that can be considered significant by today is limited to four plant species: maize, soybean, cotton and rape. The plants are mainly resistant to the new and efficient herbicides and/or insects. This latter characteristic significantly reduces the amount of pesticides used in the cultures in question. This molecular plant improvement used more and more widely meets many challenges. It guarantees a supply with sufficient quality and quantity foodstuffs and industrial raw material for the ever growing population of the globe, with continuously decreasing water resources per head and changing environmental conditions, on more efficient and smaller agricultural cropland.

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