Roles of Genomics in Addressing Global Food Security

The world is facing a potential crisis in meeting the food needs of a rapidly growing global population during the twenty-first century. Recent projections suggest that the population size may not level off during the latter half of the century as previously expected and may increase to beyond 13 billion by 2100. This represents an additional 5.5 billion people, most of whom will live in developing countries, and who will require feeding to an adequate level in order to maintain their health and development. The challenge of increasing total food production to meet this target is exacerbated by a lack of new land for additional crop growth. This is coupled with increasing threats posed by changing climatic patterns and the emergence of new crop pests and diseases. Modern genomics has the capacity to address the issue of global food security by providing new tools for increasing both the yield and quality of crop products, as well as domesticating new species. However, the dissemination of genomics and its practical implementation in developing countries will require sustained collaboration between researchers, breeders, and the public and private sectors around the world.