Many important food and fibre crops have attained close to their maximum yields as a result of conventional breeding approaches and advances in agronomic and horticultural practices. The manipulation of cell and tissue cultures to produce somatic embryos efficiently is one of the keystones of the new technologies that will greatly alter the way crops are planted (as synthetic seed) and genetically altered in the future. Gene transfer into embryogenic plant cells is already challenging conventional plant breeding, and has become an indispensable tool for crop improvement. This review provides a current assessment of the impact of somatic embryogenesis in agriculture.