Agricultural biotechnology: Opportunities and challenges associated with climate change

Abstract

Considering that the world population is expected to total 9 billion by 2050, it will clearly be necessary to sustain and even accelerate the rate of improvement in crop productivity. In the 21st century, we now face another, perhaps more devastating, environmental threat, namely climate change, which could cause irreversible damage to agricultural ecosystem and loss of production potential. Enhancing intrinsic yield, plant abiotic stress tolerance, and pest and pathogen resistance through agricultural biotechnology will be a critical part of feeding, clothing, and providing energy for the human population, and overcoming climate change. Development and commercialization of genetically engineered crops have significantly contributed to increase of crop yield and farmer's income, decrease of environmental impact associated with herbicide and insecticide, and to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from this cropping area. Advances in plant genomics, proteomics and system biology have offered an unprecedented opportunities to identify genes, pathways and networks that control agricultural important traits. Because such advances will provide further details and complete understanding of interaction of plant systems and environmental variables, biotechnology is likely to be the most prominent part of the next generation of successful agricultural industry. In this article, we review the prospects for modification of agricultural target traits by genetic engineering, including enhancement of photosynthesis, abiotic stress tolerance, and pest and pathogen resistance associated with such opportunities and challenges under climate change.

Detecting Drought Stress in Soybean Plants Using Hyperspectral Fluorescence Imaging

“…Environmental stresses on crops have intensified because of an increased frequency of factors such as drought and heat wave, which induce abnormal physiological reactions in crops that result in growth inhibition, reduced production, or even plant death. One possible solution to these problems is the development of robust drought tolerant cultivars (Chang et al, 2011).…”