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<Biotechnology is any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives to make or modify products or processes for specific use.Today, the known applications for biotechnology can be seen as a spectrum. Biotechnology is divided into a number of colours. These include blue (based on the aquatic use of biological technology), white (applied in industrial processes), and green biotechnology ( based on the biological techniques to plants)

Green biotechnology is defined as the use of biological techniques to plants with the aim of improving the nutritional quality, quantity and production economics. The most current application of biotechnology in respect to this area is genetic modification (GM), also known as genetic engineering, genetic manipulation, gene technology and/or recombinant DNA technology. The collective term “Genetically Modified Organisms” (GMO) is used frequently in regulatory documents and in the scientific literatures to describe plants, animals and microorganisms, which had DNA introduced into them by means of genetic engineering

Green biotechnology uses environmentally friendly solutions as an alternative to traditional industrial agriculture, horticulture and animal breeding processes. These include the follwoing •	use of bacteria to facilitate the growth of plants •	development of pest-resistant grains •	engineering of plants to express pesticides •	use of bacteria to assure better crop yields instead of pesticides and herbicides •	production of superior plants by stimulating the early development of their root systems •	use of plants to remove heavy metals such as lead, nickel, or silver, which can then be extracted ("mined") from the plants •	genetic manipulation to allow plant strains to be frost-resistant •	use of genes from soil bacteria to genetically alter plants to promote tolerance to fungal pathogens •	use of bacteria to get plants to grow faster, resist frost and ripen earlier.

THE USE OF BACTERIA TO FACILITATE GROWTH IN PLANTS Most soils contain a huge number of microorganisms including bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, algae and protozoa. It has been suggested that a typical gram of soil contains ∼9 × 107 bacteria, 4 × 106 actinomycetes, 2 × 105 fungi, 3 × 104algae, 5 × 103 protozoa and 3 × 101 nematodes. Of course, the numbers of these organisms in any one soil compared to another may vary greatly. Soil bacteria in particular have the ability to grow rapidly and to utilize a very wide range of different substances as nutrient sources. While many bacteria are dispersed within the soil, often attached to soil particles, many interact with the roots of plants. It is quite common for the oots may be classified as being beneficial, harmful or neutral for the plant, and sometimes the effect of a particular bacterium may vary as the soil conditions change. For example, a bacterium that facilitates growth only by providing plants with fixed nitrogen would not provide any benefit to plants when the soil contains large amounts of chemical nitrogen fertilizer. Similarly, bacteria that promote plant growth by decreasing the inhibitory effects of various environmental stresses (abiotic or biotic) are unlikely to have much effect on plant growth when the conditions are optima.Bacteria that facilitate plant growth may do so either by binding to the plant's outer surface such as the roots (the rhizosphere) or the leaves (the phyllosphere), or they may inhabit the interior surfaces of the plant forming an endophytic relationship. A bacterial endophyte may be localized in only certain plant tissues such as roots and stems, it may be distributed throughout the plant's tissues, or it may form specific structures such as nodules, depending upon the bacterium and the plant. Endophytic bacteria that form and occupy nodules on specific host plants have previously been called symbiotic bacteria and have been studied extensively. These organisms were among the first soil bacteria to be utilized commercially as a biological means of promoting plant growth. Plant beneficial soil bacteria, regardless of where they are primarily found on the plant, are now commonly referred to as plant growth-promoting bacteria or PGPB

ENGINEERING OF PLANTS TO EXPRESS PESTICIDES

To develop pest-resistant or tolerant cultivars, plant breeders have taken advantage of natural genetic variation or induced mutations. The methods that plant breeders use depend on the type of cultivar they want to improve (for example, an inbred line, a hybrid, or a population) and the reproductive biology of the plant (for example, self-pollinated or cross-pollinated) (Fehr 1987; Stoskopf et al. 1993).

An inbred line (or purebred) is phenotypically uniform 1, and the progeny 2 are identical with the parent. Many self-pollinated crops are released as inbred lines (for example, soybeans, Glycine max, and barley, Hordeum vulgare). A hybrid is the cross between two or more inbred lines; it can also be phenotypically uniform but not genetically identical with the parents. Many cross-pollinated crops are released as hybrids (for example, corn or maize, Zea mays). A plant population results from crossing a number of lines and is genetically and phenotypically diverse, although for key traits, a population can be phenotypically uniform (for example, every plant resistant to a pest).

All genetic modification methods for crop improvement consist of introducing variation, selecting useful variants, and field-testing the selected lines, hybrids, or populations to determine their merit. In the past, almost all commonly used plant breeding techniques began with artificial crosses, in which pollen from one plant is transferred to a reproductive organ of another, sexually compatible plant. Crossing allows for the combining of desirable traits, such as pest resistance and increased yield, from two or more plant cultivars. 3 The objective is to combine these traits in a new cultivar that is superior to its parents. To overcome some of the barriers to sexual hybridization between cultivated and wild relatives, rescue of pollinated embryos has been used: when a cross yields a viable embryo but the surrounding seed endosperm 4 is not viable, the embryo is taken from the nonviable seed environment and “rescued” by being grown in tissue culture.

GLOBAL MARKET OF GREEN BIOTECHNOLOGY

Globally, it is clear that since the first commercial planting in 1996, biotech crops have become an integral part of farming’s present and future, and developing countries are now leading the way. In 2011, developing countries adopted biotech crops at twice the rate of developed countries. Moreover, approximately 50 per cent of biotech crops are now grown in developing countries, the latest annual report from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) revealed. This news arrives as world leaders look ahead to the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June, which aims to address the need to build a green economy while developing sustainably and eradicating poverty. EuropaBio believes that biotech crops are clearly one tool to help farmers in both developed and developing countries to have a positive impact on the environment while also supporting the vitality of rural communities’ economies.

According to the latest report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) in 2011, 16.7 million farmers planted 160 million hectares of biotech crops in 29 countries, up by 12 million hectares (8%) and 1.3 million farmers (8%) from 2010, when there were 15.4 million farmers planting biotech crops on 148 million hectares.

In Europe, the number of hectares of the only GM maize permitted to be cultivated here increased from 91,643 hectares to 114,607 hectares, an increase of over 20%. This included a 27% increase in Spain and a 59% increase in Portugal.

“European biotech cultivation increased this year, which shows that farmers see the benefits when they are given the choice to plant these crops. However, Europe simply isn’t keeping pace with its global competitors, who have now been growing a wide array of biotech crops for 17 years. What message are we sending to the rest of the world when high-tech jobs are leaving the EU and anti-biotech scare tactics continue to be business as usual?,” commented Carel du Marchie Sarvaas, EuropaBio’s Director for Green Biotechnology Europe.