Effects of CRISPR technology on agricultural sustainability: global applications and turkish perspective

This review evaluates CRISPR/Cas applications in agriculture from a global perspective with explicit reference to Türkiye. Using a literature gap-matrix approach organised around four analytical dimensions-environmental, economic, social and policy, and scientific and technological-we synthesize the primary evidence on water and input use, productivity, disease resistance, and product quality. The literature concentrates on water and fertilizer use, productivity, and off-target accuracy, whereas soil health, biodiversity, consumer acceptance, ethical considerations and regulatory frameworks remain systematically under-represented. Global deployment of CRISPR is already delivering measurable advantages in food security, shelf life and nutritional value, while in Türkiye the research base is at an early stage but has clear potential in wheat, barley, tomato and olive. Translating CRISPR into Turkish agricultural sustainability requires (i) a domestic biosafety framework aligned with the emerging European New Genomic Techniques approach, (ii) sustained investment in multi-location primary field trials, and (iii) inclusive deployment mechanisms-particularly through producer cooperatives-that allow smallholder farmers to benefit from edited varieties.