Risks and Benefits of Genetically Modified Crops and the Application of Remote Sensing Techniques for Assessing the Impact on the Native Species and Multidisciplinary Challenges

Abstract

Increasing food production without expanding agricultural lands is on the top of the agenda of all the countries and related International Organizations. This means high yielding crops with resistance to plant diseases and many countries have adapted Genetically Modified Crops (GM or GMO Crops).This paper critically looks at the impact of the expansion of GMO croplands on the native species and the ecosystem , the attendant multidisciplinary challenges and risks and explores the possibility of using remote sensing data captures to deduce that the native species, natural as well as cultivated, are being replaced because of large scale cultivation of GMO crops, giving rise to loss of biodiversity.