Gene technology is a new form of biotechnology with much greater potential applications.
Gene technology offers enormous potential benefits for world agriculture, including the possibility of producing higher yields of more nutritious food in more environmentally sustainable ways. It offers a powerful new tool to assist plant breeders to introduce resistance to insects and diseases, as well as traits for higher quality and nutritive value. The first commercial applications of gene technology in crop plants have involved modifying the plant for greater disease or insect resistance or a more efficient production system. Introduction of these GM crops has been extremely rapid, particularly in the United States. In 1996, transgenic crops covered 1.7 million hectares worldwide.