Suitability of root, tuber, and banana crops in Central Africa can be favoured under future climates

Manners, Rhys; Vandamme, Elke; Adewopo, Julius; Thornton, Philip K.; Friedmann, Michael; Carpentier, Sébastien; Ezui, K.S.; Thiele, Graham

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2021.103246

Cited by 23 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…These applications can be extended to agricultural systems in Africa, where along with aridification, irrigation of crops is very limited. Our findings support calls for a shifted focus in drylands to crops with resilient traits (Satori et al 2021), such as enhanced root investment, which preliminary findings suggest could be favoured under future climates (Manners et al 2021). Additional benefits of this approach could exist for crops where yield is gained from belowground plant parts, which might be less affected by short-term drought than aboveground plant parts.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Seeing roots from space: aboveground fingerprints of root depth in vegetation sensitivity to climate in dry biomes

Kühn

Spiegel

Tovar

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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With predicted climate change, drylands are set to get warmer and drier, increasing water stress for the vegetation in these regions. Plant sensitivity to drier periods and drought events will largely depend on trait strategies to access and store water, often linked to the root system. However, understanding the role of below-ground traits in enhancing ecological resilience to these climate changes remains poorly understood. We present the results of a study in southern Africa where we analysed the relationship between root depth and the Vegetation Sensitivity Index (VSI) (after Seddon, Macias-Fauria et al. (2016)). VSI demonstrates remotely-sensed aboveground vegetation responses to climate variability; thus our study compares aboveground vegetation responses to belowground root traits. Results showed a significant negative relationship between root depth and vegetation sensitivity. Deeper roots provided greater resistance to climate variability as shown by lower sensitivity and higher temporal autocorrelation in vegetation greenness (as measured by the Enhanced Vegetation Index, EVI). Additionally, we demonstrated a link between deeper roots and depth to groundwater, further suggesting that it is the ability of deeper roots to enable access to groundwater that provides ecological resistance to climate variability. Our results therefore provide important empirical evidence that the ability to access deeper water resources during times of lower water availability through deeper roots, is a key trait for dryland vegetation in the face of future climate change. We also show that belowground traits in drylands leave a fingerprint on aboveground, remotely-sensed plant-climate interactions, an important finding to aid in scaling up data-scarce belowground research.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Seeing roots from space: aboveground fingerprints of root depth in vegetation sensitivity to climate in dry biomes

Kühn

Spiegel

Tovar

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…We used the model database's default values on growing period length and climatic thresholds (FAO, 1994). Despite the model's coarse temporal resolution and representation of crop-climate dynamics, it has been deemed suitable for deriving a general indication of climate change impacts on shifting crop climatic niches (Manners et al, 2021).We used projected Fig. 1.…”

Section: Crop Climate Suitability Mappingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential for land and water management adaptations in Mediterranean croplands under climate change

Zagaria

Schulp

Malek

et al. 2023

Agricultural Systems

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“…The extreme climate is anticipated to have harmful influences on plant agronomic traits, pathogens and pests, and soil fertility, affecting crop productivity ( Dhanker and Foyer, 2018 ). In Africa, climate change is predicted to negatively impact the food system due to extensive dependence on rainfed agriculture and the dominance of subsistence farming ( Manners et al, 2021 ). Smallholder farmers in Africa are mainly dependent on root, tuber, and banana crops.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genome Editing for Sustainable Agriculture in Africa

et al. 2022

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Sustainable intensification of agriculture in Africa is essential for accomplishing food and nutritional security and addressing the rising concerns of climate change. There is an urgent need to close the yield gap in staple crops and enhance food production to feed the growing population. In order to meet the increasing demand for food, more efficient approaches to produce food are needed. All the tools available in the toolbox, including modern biotechnology and traditional, need to be applied for crop improvement. The full potential of new breeding tools such as genome editing needs to be exploited in addition to conventional technologies. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas)-based genome editing has rapidly become the most prevalent genetic engineering approach for developing improved crop varieties because of its simplicity, efficiency, specificity, and easy to use. Genome editing improves crop variety by modifying its endogenous genome free of any foreign gene. Hence, genome-edited crops with no foreign gene integration are not regulated as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in several countries. Researchers are using CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing for improving African staple crops for biotic and abiotic stress resistance and improved nutritional quality. Many products, such as disease-resistant banana, maize resistant to lethal necrosis, and sorghum resistant to the parasitic plant Striga and enhanced quality, are under development for African farmers. There is a need for creating an enabling environment in Africa with science-based regulatory guidelines for the release and adoption of the products developed using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing. Some progress has been made in this regard. Nigeria and Kenya have recently published the national biosafety guidelines for the regulation of gene editing. This article summarizes recent advances in developments of tools, potential applications of genome editing for improving staple crops, and regulatory policies in Africa.

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Suitability of root, tuber, and banana crops in Central Africa can be favoured under future climates

Cited by 23 publications

References 51 publications

Seeing roots from space: aboveground fingerprints of root depth in vegetation sensitivity to climate in dry biomes

Seeing roots from space: aboveground fingerprints of root depth in vegetation sensitivity to climate in dry biomes

Potential for land and water management adaptations in Mediterranean croplands under climate change

Genome Editing for Sustainable Agriculture in Africa

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