One crop breeding cycle from starvation
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - 14:50
in Earth & Climate
Global population growth, urbanization, and a changing climate mean staple food crops will need to achieve much higher yields in the near future. New research proposes genetic engineering solutions to improve photosynthetic efficiency of food crops, boosting yield under higher temperatures and carbon dioxide levels. Because it can take 20 to 30 years of breeding and product development efforts before new crops are available to farmers, those efforts must start now.