{"id":14004,"date":"2021-02-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/04-02-2021\/gene-editing-nanotechnology-in-farming\/"},"modified":"2021-02-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T00:00:00","slug":"gene-editing-nanotechnology-in-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/04-02-2021\/gene-editing-nanotechnology-in-farming","title":{"rendered":"Gene editing, nanotechnology in farming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In Context- <\/strong>Recently, experts recommended employing new tools such as <strong>Gene editing <\/strong>and <strong>Nanotechnology-based solutions in the Agriculture sector.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is it needed?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The need for new breeding technologies is essential if <strong>global crop production<\/strong> is to <strong>double <\/strong>by <strong>2050 to meet the rising food demand. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Yield increases of 2.4% per year<\/strong> are required to meet the demand without putting <strong>more land under cultivation.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The annual production of cereals <strong>would need to go up by 50%<\/strong> to about three billion tonnes to provide for the 2050 population demand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Genome-edited crops had the <strong>potential to lower chemical fertilizer<\/strong> and<strong> pesticide use<\/strong>,<strong> reduce post-harvest losses<\/strong> while at the same time <strong>producing climate-resilient, nutrient-dense, and higher-yield crops.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Nanotechnology<\/strong> is an emerging field of Indian agriculture.\n<ul>\n<li>The use of nanotechnology for enhanced crop productivity can be a locally viable strategy for farmers, especially in exigencies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/586854638739934100_image.png\" style=\"height:250px; margin-left:150px; margin-right:150px; width:443px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is\u00a0 Gene editing?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Gene\/genome<\/strong> editing refers to technology that permits to <strong>change an organism\u2019s DNA. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>These technologies<strong> allow genetic material to be added, removed, or altered <\/strong>at <strong>particular locations<\/strong> in the genome.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Its applications include <strong>correcting genetic defects<\/strong>,<strong> treating and preventing<\/strong> the <strong>spread of diseases and improving crops<\/strong> etc.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>CRISPR <\/strong>technology is one of the tools used in <strong>gene editing.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Genomic editing is more<strong> accurate, faster<\/strong>, and <strong>less expensive<\/strong> compared to <strong>genetic modification.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/684813649792263600_image.png\" style=\"height:291px; margin-left:150px; margin-right:150px; width:442px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Use Nanotechnology in Agriculture:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Nanoscience and nanotechnology <\/strong>are the <strong>study and application <\/strong>of <strong>extremely small<\/strong> <strong>things <\/strong>which is about<strong> 1 to 100 nanometers.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>It <\/strong>can be used across all the other science fields, such as chemistry, biology, physics, materials science, and engineering.<\/li>\n<li>Nanotechnology in agriculture includes specific applications like nano fertilizers, nano pesticides, and targeted use of inputs to increase the productivity without decontamination of soil and water etc.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Steps Taken-\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0In 2007, the government launched a 5-year program called <strong>Nano Science and Technology Mission (NSTM) for research and promotion.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture released <strong>\u2018Guidelines for Evaluation of Nano-based Agri-input and food products in India\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:742px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"vertical-align:top; width:6.5in\">\n<p><strong>CRISPR technology:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats<\/strong> and was developed in the year 2012.<\/li>\n<li>CRISPRs are specialized stretches of DNA.\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0The protein <strong>Cas9 (or \u201cCRISPR-associated\u201d) i<\/strong>s an enzyme that acts like a pair of molecular scissors, capable of cutting strands of DNA.<\/li>\n<li>It allows researchers to easily alter DNA sequences and modify gene function.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>CRISPR-Cas9 technology was set to revolutionise medicine \u2014 in the treatment of diseases such as sickle cell anaemia, for instance \u2014 and agriculture.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/269086847180066340_image.png\" style=\"height:271px; margin-left:20px; margin-right:20px; width:249px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The CRISPR-Cas9 tool has already contributed to significant gains in crop resilience, altering their genetic code to better withstand drought and pests.<\/li>\n<li>The technology has also led to innovative cancer treatments and many experts hope that it may help in curing the inherited diseases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/kerala\/employ-gene-editing-nanotechnology-in-farming-experts\/article33732169.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source: TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Context- Recently, experts recommended employing new tools such as Gene editing and Nanotechnology-based solutions in the Agriculture sector. Why is it needed? The need for new breeding technologies is essential if global crop production is to double by 2050 to meet the rising food demand. Yield increases of 2.4% per year are required to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/7675930current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}