Continued innovation in plant breeding is essential to provide greater quantities of nutritious, sustainable crops that will feed a growing world and benefit ecosystems.
The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) in a paper on plant breeding and genetics, part of its series on The Need for Agricultural Innovation to Sustainably Feed the World by 2050, states that while plant breeding science has been successful, the rate of improvement is insufficient to create the future that humanity wants and needs. Complacency is unacceptable in the face of growing populations, malnutrition and under-nutrition, climate change, limited arable land, and a fragile biosphere.
The authors of the paper argue that innovative genetic improvement must go hand-in-hand with best practices for crop management to produce improved cultivars to meet the expectations of a society for safe food and sustainable practices. Plant breeding, says the paper, is an impact science that is helping to feed the world while creating global businesses. As such, it works within a legal and ethical framework of international law.
“Game-changing technologies must reach relevant crops that are important for the many and diverse regions and cultures of the world because realizing the gain needed in agricultural production will necessitate a broad sweep across global food production systems in grand scale,” says the report.
The paper points out that consumers’ attitudes toward food and agriculture can present both problems and opportunities for plant breeders. Consumers can be concerned about technologies used in how their food is produced, and as such there is an emerging need for experts who can provide evidence-based viewpoints and opinions that are also considered to be “trusted voices” among the public.