What the global food scarcity has done is make clear the inevitability of genetically modified (GM) crops, however controversial they may be. Although food scarcity in past years was tackled in most countries, including India, through the use of conventionally bred, albeit gene-altered, high-yielding crops, that approach may not work in the changed circumstances, because up-scaling the genetic production potential of a crop through traditional plant breeding techniques is a drawn-out process, while the problems besetting agriculture call for quick solutions that only molecular breeding can deliver