The pattern of crop genetic diversity has changed over the past two centuries with the modernization of agriculture, accelerating with the advent of the green revolution. Since the green revolution, the locus of agricultural research has shifted from the public to the private sector. The growing importance of the private sector in agricultural R&D is changing the types of crop technologies that are developed and the ways they are delivered to farmers. The spread of transgenic crops will influence crop genetic diversity, but their implications for the availability of plant genetic resources and the resilience of agricultural ecosystems are not entirely clear. Transgenic crops may increase or decrease crop genetic diversity, depending on how they are... |