title: Global agricultural intensification during climate change: a role for genomics.
abstract: Agriculture is now facing the 'perfect storm' of climate change, increasing costs of fertilizer and rising food demands from a larger and wealthier human population. These factors point to a global food deficit unless the efficiency and resilience of crop production is increased. The intensification of agriculture has focused on improving production under optimized conditions, with significant agronomic inputs. Furthermore, the intensive cultivation of a limited number of crops has drastically narrowed the number of plant species humans rely on. A new agricultural paradigm is required, reducing dependence on high inputs and increasing crop diversity, yield stability and environmental resilience. Genomics offers unprecedented opportunities to increase crop yield, quality and stability of production through advanced breeding strategies, enhancing the resilience of major crops to climate variability, and increasing the productivity and range of minor crops to diversify the food supply. Here we review the state of the art of genomic-assisted breeding for the most important staples that feed the world, and how to use and adapt such genomic tools to accelerate development of both major and minor crops with desired traits that enhance adaptation to, or mitigate the effects of climate change.
authors.affiliation: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abberton
authors.affiliation: School of Plant Biology and Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.|School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Batley
authors.affiliation: The John Bingham Laboratory, NIAB, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bentley
authors.affiliation: Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bryant
authors.affiliation: Forage Crop Research Institute, Japan Grassland Agriculture and Forage Seed Association, Nasushiobara, Japan.|Department of Plant Genetics and Breeding, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: The John Bingham Laboratory, NIAB, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cockram
authors.affiliation: Plant Genomics and Breeding Center, Eliseu Maciel School of Agriculture, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Antonio Costa
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences Huntsville, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Leland J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Cseke
authors.affiliation: Global Crop Diversity Trust, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Hannes
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dempewolf
authors.affiliation: Department of Agriculture, Forests, Nature and Energy (DAFNE), University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy.
authors.forename: Ciro
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: De Pace
authors.affiliation: School of Plant Biology and Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gepts
authors.affiliation: The John Bingham Laboratory, NIAB, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Greenland
authors.affiliation: University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Anthony E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.affiliation: The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Kiyosumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hori
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Glenn Thomas
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Howe
authors.affiliation: University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, UK.
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Humphreys
authors.affiliation: College of Agricultural Sciences, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lightfoot
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, UK.
authors.forename: Athole
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology and Crop Genetics, Crops for the Future, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mayes
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences and National Center for Soybean Biotechnology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
authors.forename: Henry T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Francis C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Ogbonnaya
authors.affiliation: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Rodomiro
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.affiliation: Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Paterson
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tuberosa
authors.affiliation: Division of Plant Sciences and National Center for Soybean Biotechnology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
authors.forename: Babu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Valliyodan
authors.affiliation: School of Plant Biology and Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.|Centre of Excellence in Genomics, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi- Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, India.
authors.forename: Rajeev K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Varshney
authors.affiliation: National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), Institute of Crop Science, Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yano
mesh_terms: D057231:Climate Change; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000235:genetics*; D005523:Food Supply / Q000379:methods*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D000069600:Plant Breeding / Q000379:methods*
keywords: climate change; food security; sustainability