Agriculture
BIOTECHNOLOGY can be used to address problems in all areas of agricultural production and processing. This includes plant breeding to raise and stabilise yields; to improve resistance to pests, diseases and abiotic stresses such as drought as well as the cold; and to enhance the nutritional content of foods.
It is being used to develop low-cost disease-free planting materials for crops such as bananas and potatoes. It is also creating new tools for the diagnosis and treatment of plant and animal diseases as well as for the measurement and conservation of genetic resources.
It can also be used to speed up breeding programmes for plants, livestock and fish and to extend the range of traits that can be addressed. Animal feeds and feeding practices are being changed by biotechnology to improve animal nutrition and to reduce environmental waste. Biotechnology is used in disease diagnostics and for the production of vaccines against animal diseases.
Genomics, for example, is revolutionising our understanding of the ways genes, cells, organisms and ecosystems function and is opening new horizons for marker-assisted breeding and genetic resource
management. At the same time, genetic engineering is a very powerful tool whose role should be carefully evaluated.
Non-food (industrial)
Biotechnological processing uses enzymes and micro-organisms to produce products that are useful to a broad range of industrial sectors, including chemical and pharmaceutical, human and animal nutrition, pulp and paper, textiles, energy, materials and polymers, using renewable raw materials.
Environmental uses
Environmental biotechnology utilises functions of micro-organisms for conserving the environment and would be an important key technology for sustainable development.
Biodegradation of toxic chemicals, waste water treatment and bioremediation are important technologies using metabolisms of micro-organisms.
Biofuels, such as bio-ethanol, methane, and hydrogen, produced by micro-organisms including yeasts, bacteria, and algae are expected as alternative energy that can be produced from organic wastes. Energy production is being integrated with cleaning technology using micro-organisms.
Nanotechnology is the application of processes and products at nanometre (10-9m) scale. Products from nanotechnology have been developed with significantly improved properties such as durability, efficiency and precision.
It is an emergent technology that holds the power to revolutionise the way we approach fields such as agriculture, energy production and utilisation, environmental protection, healthcare, information technology and national defence, among other fields.
Nanotechnology can thus be exploited as an enabling engine for new economic growth, sustainable development and societal well-being. It has applications in all spheres of life. Below are some of the areas where nanotechnology is going to be used:
Medicine
Researchers are developing customised nanoparticles that can deliver drugs directly to diseased cells in the human body. This method should greatly reduce the damage treatment such as chemotherapy does to a patient’s healthy cells.
Electronics
Nanotechnology holds some answers for how we might increase the capabilities of electronics devices while their weight and power consumption is reduced.
Food
Nanotechnology is having an impact on several aspects of food science, from how food is grown to how it is packaged. Companies are developing nanomaterials that will make a difference not only in the taste of food, but also in food safety and the health benefits that food delivers.
Energy
Nanotechnology is being used to reduce the cost of catalysts used in fuel cells to produce hydrogen ions from fuel such as methanol and to improve the efficiency of membranes used in fuel cells to separate hydrogen ions from other gases such as oxygen.
Nanotech solar cells can be manufactured at significantly lower cost than conventional solar cells. Batteries developed using nanomaterials will increase durability and can be recharged significantly faster than conventional batteries.
Nanotechnology can also reduce the overreliance on fossil fuels such as diesel and gasoline by making the production of fuels from low grade raw materials economical, increasing the mileage of engines and making the production of fuels from normal raw materials more efficient.
Environment
Nanotechnology can improve the performance of catalysts used to treat exhaust gases from cars or industrial plants into harmless gasses. Catalysts made from nanoparticles have a greater surface area to interact with the reacting chemicals than catalysts made from larger particles. The larger surface area allows more chemicals to interact with the catalyst simultaneously, which makes the catalyst more effective.
Water purification
Nanotechnology is being used to develop solutions to three very different problems in water quality. One challenge is the removal of industrial waste from groundwater. Nanoparticles can be used to convert contaminating chemicals through chemical reactions. Studies have shown that this method can be used successfully to reach contaminates dispersed in underground ponds and at much lower cost than methods which require pumping the water out of the ground for treatment.