Future-Proofing Plants Against Climate Change: A Path to Ensure Sustainable Food Systems

Abstract

Climate change has altered the pattern of rainfall, temperature, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, and emission of greenhouse gases, which result in the frequency and severity of extreme events such as drought, flood, salinity, heavy metal stress, nutrient stress, new diseases, and insect pest. This significantly impacts agriculture production, food security, livelihoods, and nutrition. Worldwide, millions of people are affected due to the consequence of climate change and particularly become the most vulnerable, by increasing the frequency and virulence of extreme meteorological events that cause population displacement and reduction in agricultural productivity. A paradigm shift toward more resilient, productive, and sustainable agriculture and food systems is required. The world must act immediately act on it to put an end to hunger and malnutrition. To ensure rapid and advanced agricultural development in a short period, precision farming practices and smart breeding strategies need to follow; such as machine learning, deep learning, big data analysis, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, system biology study, genomic prediction, speed breeding, and haplotype breeding. These techniques can prove the future plants against climate variability with increased yield potential and improved resilience to achieve the goal of resilient climate agriculture. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.