Kuala Lampur, March 25 -- Agriculture was for years the main stay of the nation's economy. It accounted for a big slice of the country's development. Much of the nation's infrastructure was built with money from agriculture then. Many crops contributed to the nation's coffers. Many had no qualms working in agriculture. Coffee growing was big in the 50s. I still remember companies grinding coffee beans making good money. But a serious disease halted the expansion.

Now, thanks to the prolific growth of lifestyle coffee drinking, coffee demand has catapulted. As a result of the advancement in gene technology, coffee disease is now a thing of the past. It is not wrong to say that genetic engineering has revolutionised agriculture. All those ...