Deeply disrupting our food system, COVID-19 also made people more conscious of their food needs after the crisis. However, COVID-19 is not the only future threat. As a matter of fact, we are facing a climate crisis that is causing extreme weather events to occur more frequently and this crisis is creating significant problems for farmers.
Rising temperatures, soil salinization and reduced precipitation (all associated with climate change) can have a significant impact on yields.
As we face this climate crisis, we need to grow crops that can adapt to a changing climate. This will require plant breeders to focus on increasing resilience in crop varieties.
In the years following World War II, the priority was to ensure food security and avoid a devastating famine. The green revolution gave agriculture an industrial and scientific perspective with the aim of increasing productivity. In the following years, the use of chemicals in agriculture became routine.
Between 1970 and 1990, fertilizer applications increased 360 percent, while pesticide use increased 7-8% per year. In this period, one of the means of industrialization was plant breeding. Called the "father of the green revolution", Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize for growing higher yielding wheat varieties. The focus on efficiency still continues today.
In fact, from a microeconomic perspective, it makes sense to focus on efficiency. Market demands and forces encourage plant breeders to develop more productive varieties. Because the creation of a new variety is costly and time consuming, breeding companies focus on varieties that are in demand and can be sold in the market.
But over the years, this approach to plant breeding has progressed towards homogenization. The urge to continually increase yields has led to marginalization of other traits and loss of cultivars. Growers are now primarily trying to produce seeds as quickly as possible that create a crop with consistent and predictable characteristics.
Another important consideration for globalized growers is whether the crop can travel well. In other words, it is very important that the product can be easily transported to any part of the world and travel without deterioration.
Central to this focus on increasing yields is the argument that GMO crops are necessary to feed a growing global population. Biotech companies argue that achieving global food security would be impossible without new plant breeding techniques such as CRISPR that allow for gene editing.
Again, these companies claim that farmers should adopt these engineered crops, which they call "climate-friendly", so that no one will go hungry due to climate change and global warming.
Of course, this is a false statement. Hunger is a structural issue that needs to be addressed through political and economic reforms and is linked to poverty. It is unrealistic to say that hunger can be solved with new plant breeding techniques.
The truth is we already produce enough food to feed the world, so it's a power and distribution issue. Until the global North and the global South equally enjoy the Earth's bounties, food insecurity in developing countries will persist.
We need to give priority to yield in plant breeding. As global temperatures continue to rise and the frequency of extreme weather events increases, our crops need to be grown resilient to adapt to the changing environment.
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Genetically identical monocultures are particularly vulnerable to disease and more likely to suffer stress from climate change. Growing crops that can better adapt and adapt to changing climates or increasing pressures will mean that our entire food system can better survive and recover from future crises.
To achieve this increased resistance, we need more diversity in our crop varieties. The biodiversity of our crops is essential to conserve the vast biodiversity of our planet. The intrinsic value of our planet's biodiversity is immeasurable, and preserving biodiversity in crops always benefits farmers.
Many naturally grown plants have naturally adapted over generations to survive in harsh environments. However, these varieties have been overlooked and forgotten due to increased productivity and yield drive. Although local breeds are less productive, they can cope better with extreme weather events. For example, small-scale maize producers in Mexico have grown native varieties that can handle higher temperatures. Because these species can survive better, they generally provide better food security.
These different varieties were passed down from generation to generation through the practice of seed hoarding. After the green revolution, the tradition of seed hoarding tended to decline, especially among farmers in indigenous communities. This decline was due to the fact that F1 hybridized seeds, which are high quality seeds, became popular and easily available.
F1 hybrids are created when two different varieties are combined to produce uniform and strong offspring. However, as the offspring of F1 hybrids do not consistently show parental traits in the next generation, there is a tendency for there to be a discrepancy in traits for the next generation of F1 seeds.
In addition, many seed companies today require farmers to purchase new seeds each year. In addition to seed hoarding, conventional plant breeding can help produce yielding varieties without sacrificing variety and durability. Traditional breeding methods such as open pollination can provide farmers with commercial crops that can help adapt to the changing climate. This type of plant breeding, which is low technology and costly, has proven to be faster and more effective than GMO plants.
But plant breeding is only part of the picture. Resilience is needed throughout the system, from the farm to the consumer. The main mission of the business is to shift the system to a sustainable future. In order to build sustainable future generations and a resilient food system, a shift towards sustainable farming methods is needed to preserve diversity and include wider seed uses. It is based on agroecological practices that encourage stronger socioeconomic resilience while reducing reliance on external inputs.
Agroecology needs to be supported by governments to enable farmers to switch to more sustainable farming practices. As countries begin to shift their focus to the future post-pandemic, governments will seek increased support for sustainable agriculture and will continue to emphasize the importance of seed diversity and resilience as a key element in building a better future.