Meeting Global Food Needs: Realizing the Potential via Genetics × Environment × Management Interactions

Published in Agron. J. 107:1215–1226 (2015) doi:10.2134/agronj15.0076 Available freely online through the author-supported open access option. Copyright © 2015 by the American Society of Agronomy, 5585 Guilford Road, Madison, WI 53711. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. aBstract Global food needs are projected to double by 2050 to feed the 9 billion people and the challenge presented to agriculture is whether this is feasible. Th ese goals will be faced with an increasing variability in climate and more extremes in temperature and precipitation in all parts of the world and a decreasing land resource base in extent and quality. Th ere are many challenges to be faced; however, focusing on the interactions of genetics × environment × management (G × E × M) off ers the potential to feed the 9 billion. Understanding and quantifying yield gaps off er a framework to assess the progress, and the challenge will be to determine the most eff ective and effi cient way of closing the yield gap by using water and nutrients more effi ciently. Th e more feasible approach of increasing potential will be to increase the actual yields rather than increasing potential yield. Actual yield increases and overall productivity can come from management systems focused on increasing land productivity because our ability to expand the available land resources are not a viable option. Development of methods of screening genotypes for a variety of responses to combinations of environmental and management scenarios off ers the potential pathway to developing a robust structure for G × E × M. We can meet this challenge; however, the paradigm of how we currently conduct research will not be rapid enough and we need to develop the transdisciplinary teams to represent each component of the G × E × M interaction.