Abstract
Over the last 300 years, plant science research has provided important knowledge and technologies for advancing the sustainability of agriculture. In this Essay, I describe how basic research advances have been translated into crop improvement, explore some lessons learned, and discuss the potential for current and future contribution of plant genetic improvement technologies to continue to enhance food security and agricultural sustainability.
Highlights
The Earth’s human population is expected to increase from the current 6.7 billion to 9 billion by 2050
Despite the scientific consensus that the genetically engineered crops on the market are safe to eat, have massively reduced the use of sprayed insecticides, and have benefited the environment, they are still viewed with skepticism by some consumers [49]
The end result may be that only multinational corporations can afford to develop and license such crops [72]
Summary
The Earth’s human population is expected to increase from the current 6.7 billion to 9 billion by 2050. Yields of our most important food, feed, and fiber crops decline precipitously at temperatures much above 30uC, so heat and drought will increasingly limit crop production [10] In addition to these environmental stresses, losses to pests and diseases are expected to increase. Growing more staples that are deficient in essential vitamins and minerals will not tackle health problems caused by nutrient poor diets In this Essay, I discuss how discoveries in plant genetic and genomics research can be translated to create new crops and cropping systems that more efficiently use finite resources and that can enhance the quality and quantity of food production. Not covered in this Essay, translational research includes non-genetic approaches to improving crop yield or quality emanating from fundamental research on plants, such as research into crop water use efficiency
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