Can gm crops add to productivity of UK agriculture - Research Proposal Example

when the UN cites food insecurity as a major threat in the future, it is imperative to allow the technology proven fit to human and escalate the food production levels as Godfray et al. (2010) suggest. Surprisingly, even the UK has not been in a position to ensure food security mitigation as evidenced by the industry in the country. Currently, food and drink in the UK accounts for 7% of the country’s GDP; it employs over 3.5million people (Zilberman, Kaplan, Kim, Sexton & Barrows, 2014). Despite the figures, the UK has to import 40% of the food consumed by its residents.

Interestingly, notwithstanding this import, the UK in 2007 made £12 billion from its food export and £7 billion a year later, according to Turco and Maggioni (2014). Evidently, food in the UK is a vital economy component as it helps both in feeding its residents thus saving money as well as increases its financial capabilities. As evidenced by the figures proved above, the issue of agriculture is pivotal to its growth thus explaining the reason for the continued debate concerning GM technology.

Some agree, “GM crops can boost productivity in lean times” (Parul (2011p.34) while others strongly oppose this notion. Those disagreeing argue that GM technology has proved to reduce the harvests. According to Dalla-Corte and Dhein-Dill (2012), it was noted that when GM was used in Brazil, there was a 10% decline in the soya harvest. In response to these assertions, the other section contest that this decline is not necessarily attributable to the GM but other factors (Birch, Begg and Squire, 2012) Clearly, from the above information one could conclude that the issue of GM has not been well understood by all the parties.

While one group argues about the decline in the harvest, another provides a reason, which clearly seems valid. For that reason, a research ought to be conducted to ascertain the exact effect of GM technology on the UK agriculture. As already proven, agriculture is an imperative