Control of crop diseases and pests by biotechnology in the United States

Introduction: the National Center for food and agricultural policy of the United States recently published a research report that biotechnology is playing a significant role in controlling crop diseases and insect pests, not only increasing food production and reducing agricultural costs, but also reducing agricultural dependence on pesticides According to the comprehensive calculation of 27 kinds of crops by the Research Institute, six kinds of agricultural products improved by biotechnology, such as soybean, corn, cotton, papaya, pumpkin and rape, have entered the market, increasing food and fiber production by 1.8 million tons each year in the United States, increasing farmers' income by 1.5 billion US dollars, and reducing pesticides by 20000 tons In some cases, biotechnology is the only way to avoid large-scale pests, the report said One example is the citrus decay virus that devastates Mexico's orchards It could soon hit Texas, the U.S., destroying the $48 million citrus industry there every year The virus can only be prevented by developing antiviral citrus varieties Bush dwarf virus is very harmful to raspberry This woody plant has a 15 year growth cycle, but it has to be cut down five years after being attacked by the virus, which makes American growers lose more than 4500 tons of raspberry every year If we breed dwarf virus resistant varieties, we can avoid this loss and reduce the use of nearly 170 tons of fumigant every year (author:) share to feed Weibo share to: