Publisher's Synopsis
Today modern agriculture is facing new challenges. Total yields have to be increased due to the continuing population growth of mankind and due to changing food consumption. However, global climate creates new problems but also new opportunities for agriculture. For more than a decade the yearly yield increases of major food staples have been on the decline, which is due to optimized production systems like the application of mineral fertilizer and crop protection measures. But also the yield increases due to genetic improvement of crops have been stagnating. Obviously we are approaching yield barriers for a number of crops, which creates a need for innovation in breeding systems. There is no doubt that further genetic improvement of crops will be a key for increasing yields in the future. Moreover, breeding must meet the demands for increasing biomass (bio-energy) and the production of industrial raw materials. The breeding of better-adapted and higher-yielding varieties relies crucially on the available genetic variation. Broad genetic variation is a fundamental prerequisite for successful breeding. Apart from other technologies like wide crosses, mutation breeding and somatic hybridization, genetically modified plants will play an increasingly important role in future breeding systems either because natural genetic variation has been largely exploited or because natural variation is completely lacking from the primary and secondary or even from the tertiary gene pool of a crop species. This book was written with an intention to get back to the facts. In the past years a number of books focusing on GM (Genetically Modified) plants have been published. Some of these cover all aspects, including minor crop species. This book tries to address all aspects of GM plants, including their employment in a plant-breeding procedure, and their socioeconomic implications. The Author emphasizes that GM plants among others are an important tool in plant breeding to broaden the genetic variation of crop species.
