Plant Breeding and Management Strategies to Minimize the Impact of Water Scarcity and Biotic Stress in Cereal Crops under Mediterranean Conditions

Néstor Pérez-Méndez,Alejandro Pérez-De-Luque,David Gomez-Candon,Cristina Miguel-Rojas,Josefina C Sillero,Mar Catala-Forner,Jose Antonio Jimenez-Berni,Elias Fereres,Dolors Villegas

doi:10.3390/agronomy12010075

Abstract

Wheat and rice are two main staple food crops that may suffer from yield losses due to drought episodes that are increasingly impacted by climate change, in addition to new epidemic outbreaks. Sustainable intensification of production will rely on several strategies, such as efficient use of water and variety improvement. This review updates the latest findings regarding complementary approaches in agronomy, genetics, and phenomics to cope with climate change challenges. The agronomic approach focuses on a case study examining alternative rice water management practices, with their impact on greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity for ecosystem services. The genetic approach reviews in depth the latest technologies to achieve fungal disease resistance, as well as the use of landraces to increase the genetic diversity of new varieties. The phenomics approach explores recent advances in high-throughput remote sensing technologies useful in detecting both biotic and abiotic stress effects on breeding programs. The complementary nature of all these technologies indicates that only interdisciplinary work will ensure significant steps towards a more sustainable agriculture under future climate change scenarios.

Highlights

Wheat and rice are among the most important cereals at the global scale [1]
Other possible strategies to improve yields in water-limited environments would be breeding early cultivars that may avoid water deficits by completing their life cycle before severe water stress sets in. This strategy may be more viable in the future, as climate change might increase the chance of milder temperature winters in climates of terminal drought such as the Mediterranean
Climate change presents an unprecedented challenge on the global scale that will only be overcome with the joint efforts of several disciplines, all of them highly specialized

Summary

Introduction

Wheat and rice are among the most important cereals at the global scale [1]. The growing area in the world cultivated with wheat occupied in 2019 almost 215 million hectares, with a production of 765 million tons and average yields of 3543 kg/ha. To meet the demands of the growing population, farming systems will need a reconfiguration for a sustainable intensification To this end, FAO has proposed five main strategies, two of them being improvement of crops and varieties and efficient water management [2], which are both the focus of this review. Semi-arid zones cover up to 18% of the total land surface of the world and, among other constraints, and they endure reduced water input, erratic rainfall, land degradation, and limited access to agricultural technologies In this context, changing varieties provides a relatively simple means to enhance the cropping systems, and plant breeding is a very promising activity to improve yields [6]. To increase agricultural sustainability, innovative water management strategies are needed to reduce potential conflicts among crop production, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity conservation. Water management strategies should account on yield impacts and on the potential tradeoffs between water use savings and the conservation of aquatic biodiversity, especially in region areas where conservation is a priority

Adaptation Strategy

Biotic Stresses

Abiotic Stresses

Phenomics Approach

Findings

Concluding Remarks