Question

What is the main objective of production/use of herbicide resistant GM crops?

A. Encourage eco-friendly herbicides

B. Reduce herbicide accumulation in food articles for health safety

C. Eliminate weeds from the field without the use of manual labour.

D. Eliminate weed from the field without the use of herbicides

Answer 1

Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods.

Complete Answer:

Let us analyse the options to find the correct answer.

Option A: GM crops do not encourage eco-friendly herbicides as they helped to develop such transgenic crop plants which are resistant to herbicides so that they are not damaged when farmers spray herbicides in the fields.

Therefore, this is the incorrect option. Herbicide is basically a pesticide which is used to kill unwanted plants.

Option B: Reduce herbicide accumulation in food articles for health safety which is the main objective of production of GM crops. The traditional way of farming mostly relies on aggressive use of herbicides to stop weeds production as the nutrients that are essential for the crops being grown is utilised by them only. So the farmers use herbicides so that the unwanted plants get killed and the nutrients are utilised by the crops grown in the field. These herbicides had a tendency to run off into water bodies and biomagnify into the food chain thereby affecting humans adversely. The advantage of GM crops being weed resistant which eliminates this issue by ensuring that such chemicals do not accumulate into food articles. Therefore, this is the correct option.

Option C: Purposes of GM crops generally include resistance to certain diseases, pests, or environmental conditions, or resistance to chemical treatments (e.g. resistance to a herbicide). Herbicide-tolerant plants are plants whose growth and development are not significantly affected by herbicides used on the weeds growing around them. These types of plants were developed to help farmers control weeds without the use of manual labour that competes with crops for soil, space, water, and sunlight. Therefore, this is the incorrect option. Another purpose of genetic modification of crops is to increase its nutritional value and this is seen in the case of golden rice.

Option is D: Elimination of weed from the field without the use of herbicides is not the objective of production of GM crops. Therefore, this is the incorrect option.

**Thus, the correct option is B, Reduce herbicide accumulation in food articles for health safety.
**

Note: The disadvantages of GM crops are,

- They can harm insects which could be of ecological importance.

- They can result in a mutant variety of crops which can have harmful effects on the consumer.

- It can damage the environment.