HARNESSING SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: CHALLENGES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

Abstract

Synthetic biology has emerged as an effective way of resolving numerous challenges encountered by modern agriculture, including climate change, land degradation, stressed water and food poverty.  This paper examines the way synthetic biology can be applied to enhance crops and makes agricultural practice sustainable and the issues that arise during its application.  Among the chief approaches explored there are genome editing with CRISPR/Cas9, metabolic engineering, and the application of biopesticides and biop-based fertilizers.  A careful analysis reveals that crops created by the use of synthetic biology were more fertile, enjoyed stronger resistance to drought, and contained more nutrients. The productivities were 20-40 percent more.  The health of the soil also improved a lot. The synthetic biofertilizer treated plots retained nitrogen and phosphorus.  Comparison of the benefits against the costs of input, in 20 locations, revealed that the cost of the input reduced by15-30 percent per hectare as farmers utilized less fertilizers and pesticides.  In addition, 60 percent of the population is accepting of synthetic biology stated in a national survey despite the lingering concern of the safety of GMOs and the associated dangers they possess to the environment.  The figures indicate that the positive correlation between the agricultural production and the amount of investment in the synthetic biology research is very high. As an illustration, CRISPR-modified crops have decreased their development cycles to 4 years as opposed to 12 years previously.  There are however great issues to contend with, which include this variability of the regulations, the high cost of research and development and biethical considerations.  This essay discusses the way synthetic biology would transform farming in a positive manner to be more efficient, sustainable, and resilient. It also discusses the significance of having uniform policies, inform the people, and collaborating with each other across fields to maximize it.