Breeding Efforts for Crop Productivity in Abiotic Stress Environment

Abstract

In the present state, human activities coupled with simultaneous exploitation of the earth's resources have resulted in newer challenges that surface day-by-day. In a response to overcome the after-effects, new methods are being developed to address these challenges in an effective manner. Considering the projection that the world population will rise by 1.8 billion by the upcoming 2030 which will directly increase the expected food demand by 50% (www.popcouncil.org). As per FAO, if the world's population tally even touches the projected mark, the global food production in developing countries should also observe a parallel growth of two-fold. Irrespective of thinking about the future feeding at present, the focus is also given on reducing the overall losses in food productivity due to the cumulative effects of different abiotic stresses. However, at a present situation of 2020, when the availability of staple foods needs to be dramatically increased to meet the needs of a rising human population; abiotic stresses (drought, salinity, high-temperature, cold) and climatic changes have established as severe threats to global crop production. All these together have pressurized the agriculture's responsibility for preserving the environment and climate change parallelly. In this regard only, increasing plant resistance to various abiotic stresses is one of the top-priority goals for scientific community. This has been done with many, new breeding programs that have reoriented the breeding capabilities in the recent years. Therefore, in the present chapter, the primary focus is on highlighting the latest achievements and discoveries used in breeding for the treatment of abiotic stress. In a relay, the book chapter initiates from new physiological concepts and breeding methods followed by discussing modern molecular biological approaches aimed at creating improved abiotic stress-resistant varieties.KeywordsAbiotic stressPhysiological responseCrop productivityMolecular breedingMarker-assisted selectionGWASGenetic engineering