Abstract

Agriculture forms a basis for survival and advancement of civilization of mankind and economic growth. The production and quality of food depends on nature of cultivars that have hitherto been obtained by mutation and hybridization of selected plants. Since the productivity of many crops has reached a plateau the gene transfer technology is used to break the yield barriers to meet the demand of the growing population of mankind. The gene transfer although yielded intended effects including reduction of emission of greenhouse gases, caused several changes in the modified crop plants, interacted with soil food webs, affected the biota associated with agro system, inflicted damage to mammals and birds, and contaminated both the related and unrelated plant species through horizontal gene transfer.The gene transfer also caused the phenomena of resistance and ecological succession of biota in different habitats

Key words: Gene transfer, transgene, agriculture, modified crops.