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Biotechnology & Agriculture For centuries, many techniques aimed at the improvement in agriculture have been utilized. Today, applied plant science has three overall goals: to increase the crop yield, improve crop quality, and reduce the cost of production. Biotechnology has served a major role in meeting these goals. However, progress has been slower than with medical and other areas of research. Since plants are genetically more and physiologically more complex than single-cell organisms such as bacteria …

…adequate crops may be well addressed by biotechnology. Further research in agricultural biotechnology and biopesticide development aims to provide attractive alternatives to the farmer that will lower overall unit cost of production and allow the farmer to be more competitive in the highly cost-sensitive world markets. While some of the uses of chemical pesticides will be necessary for decades to come, continued development by biotechnology companies of useful biological pesticides will offer farmers viable alternatives.