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Environmental biotechnology employs microorganisms to prevent, mitigate, and treat environmental contamination, whereas agricultural biotechnology uses scientific tools and procedures to develop the agriculture sector.
Fremont, CA: Biotechnology that uses environmentally friendly methods to alternative traditional agricultural, horticultural, and animal breeding methods is known as green biotechnology. The use of green biotechnology in agriculture includes genetically modified plants and animals, the development of transgenic plants, the manipulation of microorganisms to enhance crop growth, the production of fertile and resistant seeds, etc. A few examples include bioremediation, the production of biofuels and biofertilizers, geomicrobiology, microbial ecology, solid waste management, wastewater treatment, and other ecological applications.
Green Biotechnology in Agriculture: Tools and Applications
Micropropagation and Tissue Culture
Micropropagation, or the method of rapidly multiplying stock plant material in tissue culture to create many progeny plants in a limited time and area, is a popular tool in plant biotechnology.
Crop Alteration
Crop modification techniques have been employed to boost crop quality and yield for hundreds of years. Traditional approaches were used in the past to crossbreed sexually suitable mates. Nowadays, mutagenesis, polyploidy, somatic hybridization, RNA interference, transgenics, and genome editing are common scientific procedures.
Increased Nutrient Content
Crops are fortified or enriched with nutrients to ensure that critical nutrients are available in normal diets and staple crops and minimize malnutrition.
Enhancement of agronomic traits
Plant and agricultural crop biotechnology tools are most effective in improving agronomic characteristics. The ability to resist insects, herbicides, viruses, high temperatures, drought, delayed fruit ripening, enhanced food storage, and eliminating poisons and allergens are all examples of such properties.
Green Biotechnology Tools and Applications in Environmental Biotechnology
Bioremediation
Bioremediation involves using living organisms (mainly microbes) to decompose or immobilize waste materials and contaminants. The goal of bioremediation is to restore environmental health by enhancing natural biodegradation. Furthermore, it includes the inclusion of microorganisms (bioaugmentation) or the application of nutrients or aeration (biostimulation).
Biofuels and Bioenergy
Biomass can be converted into heat, power, and biofuels using thermochemical and biochemical conversion processes and extraction techniques.
Biofertilizers
Sustainable agriculture methods rely on biofertilizers to replace poisonous and destructive chemicals. Biofertilizers are microbial inoculants or microbial preparations that improve the soil's nutritional status.