“Around the world, researchers are working to create genetically modified crop varieties that can withstand severe drought, expected more often with climate change, or thrive on arid lands now considered unsuitable for farming,” writes Matt Weiser for Ensia. The approaches are manifold. At Emory, scientist Roger Deal is studying how a close relative of alfalfa recovers more quickly from drought and begins growing sooner than other plants. “This would allow crops … to get by with less water” if the genetic mechanism can be identified, says Ensia.
Argentina has approved a GMO soybean that uses a gene from a naturally drought-tolerant sunflower to improve the plant’s ability to survive drought. Developers say the soybean delivers higher yields during drought and withstands salty soil. The soybean is being tested in the United States but is not approved for commercial use. At Cal-Berkeley, Peggy Lemaux is looking at how sorghum undergoes genetic changes naturally to withstand drought. Once understood, genetic engineering could make sorghum, tomatoes and rice better able to survive in drought. So-called resurrection plants that bounce back from total deprivation of water are being studied in South Africa, and at Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee, scientist Xiaohan Yang ponders agave, which uses a different type of photosynthesis than grains and loses less water to transpiration.
A scientist at the anti-GMO Center for Food Safety says genetic engineering “is being pushed at the expense of other approaches in agriculture that we know work.” An article in the journal Nature says conventional plant breeding has produced more than 150 corn hybrids that are drought tolerant. Says Ensia, “On the other hand, if successful, the application of GMO technology to boosting drought resistance could be an important addition to the toolkit humans can use to adapt to climate change, which is expected to cause longer and more frequent droughts in many of the world’s important food-growing regions.”