1983
The first genetically modified plant produced was an antibiotic-resistant tobacco Plant. The Washington University group, headed by Mary-Dell Chilton, had produced cells of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia, a close relative of ordinary tobacco, that were resistant to the antibiotic kanamycin. It was reported that Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a bacterium, to carry new genes into plant cells to form genetically plants that resistant to kanamycin.

Early 1990s

The first commercially grown genetically modified food crop was tomato created by California company called the Flavr Savr. In 1994, it then approved by the FDA to be marketed in United States. This transgenic tomato modified the traditional tomato by delaying the ripening after picking, in order words it was genetically altered so that it took longer to decompose after picked.
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1990

The New York Times stated that in the early 1990s, Hawaii’s papaya industry was facing a severe disaster due to the presence of a deadly virus known as ringspot virus. The term papaya ringspot (PRS) was first coined by Jensen in 1949 to describe a papaya disease in HawaiHence, papaya has been genetically modified to resist the ringspot virus and till today, 80% of Hawaiian papaya is genetically engineered, as there is still no conventional or organic method that can resist and control the ringspot virus.