Agricultural biotechnology in Bangladesh: The way forward

Bangladesh is an agricultural country, and agriculture is the foundation of its economy. Climate change, followed by global warming, poses significant threats to agricultural production via a pool of abiotic stressors. Crop output is continually being hampered by several environmental factors, including but not limited to: drought, heat, cold, flooding, salt, and tropospheric ozone. Agricultural biotechnology has the potential to improve food and nutrition security while also increasing agricultural output by developing resilient climate-smart crops that are ready for future threats using cutting-edge biotechnological tools and techniques. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are organisms that have had their original genetic structure changed or modified in a laboratory to innovate valuable traits. GMOs can play a vital role in achieving food security by increasing food production and availability while improving food quality and ensuring the availability of micronutrients and other nutraceuticals, and GM crops can improve farmers' economic and social status. The precise change at target areas made possible by recently discovered genome editing techniques holds enormous promise for crop enhancement. The primary advantage of genome editing technology is that techniques have been devised to remove the transgene, making crops created by genome editing and traditional breeding indistinguishable. To facilitate the commercialization of products derived from these technologies, governments should carefully consider the regulatory framework and establish appropriate regulations not to control but to move forward. More flexible efforts must be implemented into regulatory frameworks if we are to successfully harness the potential of technology and lead it toward good uses.