The Royal Society says that by the middle of the (century) the global population may reach 9 billion. And feeding those extra mouths is a major (challenge) for the planet, compounded by the spectre of global (warming).
Professor David Baulcombe of Cambridge University, who led the research, says a billion people are already (malnourished). Professor Baulcombe says the money the government should plough into crop science is needed (immediately). If we wait ten years, he says, it may be too late. The genetic (manipulation) he refers to could produce crop strains resistant to disease, drought and salinity.
But the issue of genetically (modified) crops is still something of a hot potato, despite the technology being already used by millions of farmers. (Environmental) groups say the usefulness of GM crops has not been proven, and the threat they pose by letting altered genes spread into other plants is significant.
Keith Adams, BBC News, London