ABSTRACT
The world population is expected to exceed 8.0 billion by 2025, and over 800 million people are food insecure. The availability of cropland is decreasing over time, and therefore there is a need to increase crop productivity on the available arable land to meet the increasing demand for food, fodder, and fuel in the future. Productivity gains are essential not only for increasing food availability, but also for economic growth. One of the areas where a substantial increase in food production can be realized is through the reduction in crop losses due to biotic stresses, currently valued at US$243.4 billion (Oerke et al., 1994). Among these, insect pests cause an estimated loss of US$90.4 billion. Massive application of pesticides to minimize losses due to insect pests has resulted in adverse effects on benefi cial organisms, pesticide residues in food, and environmental pollution. A large number of insects have also developed high levels of resistance to commonly used insecticides (Rajmohan, 1998). Development of resistance to insecticides has necessitated the application of higher dosages of the same pesticide or more pesticide applications. It is in this context that the modern tools of biotechnology can be used for pest management and sustainable crop production (Table 19.1).
