Breeding for Global Climate Change.

Adaptation to environmental, technological and socioeconomic variation is ubiquitous in farming systems. Over time, breeders and agronomists have adapted to new challenges and developed improved crops and technologies, resulting in sustained crop production in the last century. Because of the global scale and far reaching implications on the economy and food security, climate change brings unprecedented challenge to industry, farmers and society. The complexity of the climate and agricultural systems makes it difficult if not impossible to predict long term impacts. However, effective adaptation may result from monitoring climate variation, anticipating impacts in the short to medium term, and developing crops and technologies to improve crop production and stability for the anticipated production scenarios. This presentation illustrates this approach and describes three examples of today's actions that will contribute to mitigate impacts of climate change within farming systems. First, we describe a trait-management technology that will positively contribute to anticipated increased biotic stress and development of insect resistance. Second, we present a successful program to develop maize with improved performance in water limited environments. Finally, we introduce an assessment methodology based on biophysical modeling and breeding simulation. Effective crop adaptation to climate change will require an iterative learning as we go process and it will require collaboration between industry, public institutions and government.