9^th Global Food Security Food Safety and Sustainability

Hybridization and Its Effect

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In agriculture and animal husbandry, the Green Revolution popularized the use of conventional hybridization to increase yield by creating "high-yielding varieties" for example hybrid rice. The handful of hybridized breeds originated in developed countries and were further hybridized with local varieties in the rest of the developing world to create high yield strains resistant to local climate and diseases.. According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), genetically engineered crops were grown by approximately 8.5 million farmers in 21 countries in 2005; up from 8.25 million farmers in 17 countries in 2004.The main objective of research and development for food security is to find improved seed varieties, that enable reliable high yields at the same or lower tillage costs through qualities such as resistance to or tolerance of plant diseases and animal pests as well as to stress factors such as climatic variation or aridity, poor soil quality, crop rotation practices, and others. Equally important objectives are the transfer of genes with nitrogen-fixing capacity on to grains, and the improvement of food quality by overcoming vitamin or mineral deficiencies.The realization of these objectives will bring tremendous benefits – benefits that can easily be demonstrated using rice (the staple food for 2.4 billion people) and cassava (the staple food for 500 million people)