The world’s need for food is growing faster than the projected supply, writes a group of crop scientists in proposing the formation of a broad-based research network to develop new varieties and mitigate the impact of climate change on world hunger. In an opinion piece in the journal Science, the scientists say that the fruitful international collaboration on wheat, which began with the Green Revolution of the 1960s and led to the varieties sown on half of the world’s wheat territory, can serve as a template for work on many crops.
A Global Crop Improvement Network (GCIN) “would revolutionize our ability to understand and model crop responses to environments globally and accelerate adoption of vital technologies,” says the team. Such a network could encompass most staple food crops and allow field tests throughout the world’s cropping regions. “Shared research platforms may be the only equitable way to access sites that are analogs for future climate and disease threats.”
Despite reductions in world hunger rates, nearly 800 million people still do not get enough to eat. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that an additional 35 million to 112 million people could be living in poverty in 2030 because of the impact of climate change on agriculture. Rising temperatures are expected to put pressure on yields while encouraging the spread of crop pests. Weather could become more extreme, with storms and droughts that are more intense.
Agricultural research is widely regarded as an important and basic element of the food supply. Yet it is chronically strapped for funds despite a high return on investment.
“One way to initiate and finance a GCIN would be through structural rearrangement within the CGIAR, whose annual budget is approximately $900 million,” says the article, referring to the network of research centers known as CGIAR. The budget includes $200 million for research on the major cereal, legume, root, and tuber crops. “These crop networks could constitute the major components of a GCIN, while additional investment could underpin and improve NARS [national Agricultural Research Service], encompass underutilized crops—e.g., quinoa—and achieve cohesion and a strategic vision.”
The lead author of the article, wheat breeder Matthew Reynolds of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in Mexico, said plant scientists know how to create crops that are more resilient to heat and drought, but that “we’re at a point where we need to accelerate our work.” Public–private partnerships could drive globally coordinated research, he said in a CIMMYT release. “A more globally oriented, problem-solving research effort will increase the efficiency of global investment in agriculture and help ensure food security.”
The International Wheat Improvement Network, working in more than 90 countries, develops 1,000 high-yielding, disease-resistant strains annually, and these varieties, planted on half of the world’s wheat area, provide more than $2 billion a year in additional revenue for resource-poor farmers and consumers, says the opinion piece.
With a GCIN, researchers could share information more easily, harmonize practices, and coordinate work to avoid duplication, say the scientists. A network also could explore crop practices, constraints on inputs such as fertilizer and pest controls, the effect of different environments, and crop types to close yield gaps.