A Vision for Crop Improvement and Food Security in a Changing Climate

10 February 2022. A Vision for Crop Improvement and Food Security in a Changing Climate.

An estimated 690 million people—approximately one out of every eleven people on Earth—are undernourished, and this number is expected to increase as the global population expands from 7.9 billion to a predicted 8.5 billion in 2030. To satisfy the growing demand for food, a projected 70% increase in global agricultural production will be required by 2050. This demand is compounded by the climate crisis, which is projected to increase global temperatures by 1-2°C, from the pre-industrial level, by 2050. For every 1°C increase, the global yields of the three major cereals— rice, wheat, and maize— are expected to decrease by 3-7%. The world’s rural poor, who depend on agriculture for their food and livelihood, will be the hardest hit.

Applications of genomics offer the promise of addressing these challenges by transforming breeding strategies, advancing genetic gains, and increasing the productivity of plant and animal species. This can only be achieved if the lessons learned from cutting-edge science are translated for development impact. Join this webinar to hear more about scientific opportunities to improve staple cereals in a changing climate.

SPEAKERS

Nora Lapitan

Research Community of Practice Lead, USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security

Dr. Nora Lapitan is the Lead for the Research Community of Practice in the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security at USAID. In this role, she oversees the bureau’s Feed the Future research portfolio. She also leads the Input... more

PRESENTER

Tony Gathungu

Global Head of Seeds2B, The Syngenta Foundation for Sustain able Agriculture (SFSA)

Tony is the Global Head of Seeds2B for The Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) based in Nairobi, Kenya. Seeds2B is SFSA’s seeds stream that helps farmers access quality, affordable seeds of improved varieties... more

Alison Bentley

Director, CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program

Alison Bentley is the director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program. Her research combines genetics and genomics to develop and deliver new tools and technology to improve plant breeding, crop production and adaptation to climate... more

Geoff Morris

Associate Professor of Crop Quantitative Genomics, Colorado State University

Geoff Morris is an associate professor of crop quantitative genomics at Colorado State University, working to understand and improve crop adaptation (www.CropAdaptation.org). The Morris lab focuses on climate resilience in sorghum... more

Mark Edge

Director of Partnerships, Seeds & Traits Business Development for LMICs, Bayer

Mark leads Bayer’s collaborations with public-private partnership projects to get innovative improved seeds and traits to smallholder farmers to improve food security and rural livelihoods in low- and middle-income countries in... more

Charlie Messina

Professor of Predictive Breeding in the Department of Horticultural Sciences, University of Florida

Charlie Messina is Professor of Predictive Breeding in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at the University of Florida. His program focuses on the development of prediction methods for agriculture and horticulture, with a... more

Related 

TELA MAIZE PROJECT

Through the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development, AATF is leading the TELA Maize Project, a public-private partnership that is addressing the problem of drought in maize and destructive insects specifically stemborers and fall armyworm. Stemborers reduce maize production in several countries in Africa; and in Kenya alone, this loss averages 13% or 400,000 tonnes per year equivalent to USD 90 million. Similarly, projections estimate that the Fall Armyworm could destroy up to 20 million metric tons of maize in Africa each year, enough to feed 100 million people. 

The TELA Project is working towards commercialisation of transgenic drought-tolerant and insect-protected maize varieties to enhance food security in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• The word ‘TELA’ is derived from the Latin word TUTELA which means ‘Protection’. 
• The TELA Maize Project builds on progress made from a decade of excellent breeding work under the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) Project. 
• The TELA Maize Project is currently implemented in 7 countries – Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
  
  
  Other relevant articles: 

Other relevant articles: 

• No perfect solution: Africa’s smallholder farmers must use both traditional and new practices 06/02 Ratemo Michieka, University of Nairobi
• The use of epic narratives in promoting ‘natural agriculture’
  This paper profiles some key promoters of nature-based and natural systems agriculture – Masanobu Fukuoka, Wes Jackson, Jerome Irvin Rodale and Robert Rodale, and Allan Savory. The focus is on ‘narratives with epic elements’ that have been constructed around these personalities, and how these have helped gain legitimacy and influence for themselves, their ideas, and their organisations. Similar processes and dynamics can be seen in more mainstream agricultural research. As the struggle over the future of agriculture is increasingly played out in corporate boardrooms, through PR agencies and on social media, it is critically important to understand how narratives with epic elements emerge, and are used to influence the debate about the future of agriculture and the potential contribution of nature-based solutions.