In the intense debates around the applications of modern biological research to agriculture and food production, genetic modification (GM techniques)—and the novel crops that result from their application—tends to attract the lion’s share of public attention. This is despite the fact that such research offers a range of other tools and techniques that do not involve genetic modification, and yet can still make major contributions to agriculture.
One result of the disproportionate focus on GM crops is that policymakers in the developing world often lack adequate information on the nature and potential use of non-GM biotechnologies. This briefing seeks to help fill this information gap by summarizing the characteristics of the most common non-GM biotechnologies that are being developed and applied to crop improvement in the developing world. It focuses on four types of non-GM biotechnology: tissue culture, molecular markers, diagnostic techniques and microbial products.