Plant Biotechnology and Genetics for Sustainable Agriculture and Global Food Security

Download or read book Plant Biotechnology and Genetics for Sustainable Agriculture and Global Food Security written by Galal Bakr Anis and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2024-09-12 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the World Food Programme, 135 million suffer from acute hunger largely due to man-made conflicts, climate change and economic downturns. The COVID-19 pandemic could now double that number, putting an additional 130 million people at risk of suffering with acute hunger. Moreover, food insecurity and low dietary quality cause huge public health problems. Malnutrition is responsible for physical and mental development impairments, various infectious diseases, and unacceptably high numbers of premature deaths. Since the Green Revolution, a constant increase in crop productivity have experienced; however, there is concern that yield improvement is not enough. Current rate of annual yield increases for major crops ranges between 0.8-1.2 % which needs to be doubled to feed the ever-increasing human population. The classical breeding techniques contributed toward the development of superior crop varieties which helped in achieving food security for ever-increasing human population. However, with the passage of time these classical breeding approaches are lagging to meet global food requirements and scientists are working on novel plant breeding techniques (NPBTs) and other breakthrough agricultural techniques to reduce hunger. Recently, OMICs, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), QTL mapping, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), and genome editing (GE) approaches etc. have proven to be powerful tools that we have at our disposal to overcome substantial obstacles in the way of efficiency and productivity of current agricultural practices. In addition, recently there has been a rapid development of online forums, methods, protocols, and application strategies for genome-based techniques and their applications for crop improvement.