Pocket K No. 57: Impact of GM Crops on Soil Health
A healthy agricultural production system cannot exist without healthy soils.
Aside from being the habitat of diverse organisms that contribute to carbon
sequestration, the soil plays a vital role in food production as well as in
climate change mitigation.
Majority of the carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere are contributed by
various biological processes that take place in the soil. Carbon
sequestration happens when carbon from the atmosphere is absorbed and stored
in the soil. This process is vital because the more carbon is stored in the
soil, the less carbon dioxide would be present in the atmosphere that
contributes to climate change. Thus, restoring degraded soils and adopting
soil conservation practices are important to decrease greenhouse gases
emitted by agriculture.
With biotech products such as herbicide tolerant crops, conservation
practices have been used not just to the farmers' advantage, but also to
preserve soil health.
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