In its first major policy announcement of the new year, China has revealed plans to boost spending on agricultural science and technology - continuing a trend towards rapidly-growing farm support in recent years.

Genetically modified crops or organisms (GMOs) are produced by the now well-known branch of molecular biology, the recombinant DNA technology or genetic engineering. The share of GM crops in world agriculture is increasing steadily. From 1996 to 2009, the cultivation of GM crops has seen an 80-fold increase. In India, 65% of the agricultural land is still dependent on monsoon. There is need for more investment in biotechnology-driven solutions to increase yields

Questions have been raised about the transparency and scientific quality of regulatory processes applied in the first open field releases of genetically modified (GM) insects, and there is concern that inappropriate precedents have been set, particularly through generic risk assessments covering multiple species and technologies.

After many years of open discussion and development, the first genetically modified (GM) insect strains are entering field trials. A key engineered trait renders the insects “genetically sterile”, such that some or all of their offspring die; the insects additionally carry a fluorescent marker gene for easy identification. Such “genetic sterility” transgenes (in genetic terms, conditional dominant lethal genes) are not able to establish or spread in the wild due to their high fitness cost; such self-limiting strategies are widely viewed as the lowest risk category.

Experimental releases of genetically modified (GM) insects are reportedly being evaluated in various countries, including Brazil, the Cayman Islands (United Kingdom), France, Guatemala, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Panama, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United States of America, and Vietnam. GM mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) have already been released for field trials into inhabited areas in the Cayman Islands (2009–?), Malaysia (2010–2011), and Brazil (2011–2012).

Insects are the pre-eminent form of metazoan life on land, with as many as 1018 individuals alive at any one instant and over three-quarters of a million species described. Although it is estimated that there are as many as 14,000 species that are blood feeders, only three to 400 species regularly attract our attention. Some of these are of immense importance to us, as vector-borne diseases still form a huge burden on both the human population and our domesticated animals.

Why is India so eager to reactivate and conclude a dormant Doha Round that has little to offer the country? (Editorial)