New plant breeding techniques to boost resilience and sustainability in crop production

Abstract

Agriculture faces unprecedented challenges due to climate variability, environmental degradation and increasing food demand. Traditional breeding alone cannot meet these challenges because of its slow pace and limited genetic variability. New Plant Breeding Techniques (NPBTs)—including genome editing, genomic selection, pan-genomics, speed breeding, high-throughput phenotyping and de novo domestication—offer precise and accelerated methods for developing climate-resilient and sustainable crop varieties. This review synthesizes recent advances in NPBTs, demonstrating their contributions to drought, heat, salinity and disease tolerance, as well as improvements in nutrient-use efficiency and yield stability. Case studies in rice, wheat, maize, tomato, legumes and sorghum illustrate their real-world applications. Regulatory, ethical and socio-economic considerations are also discussed. Collectively, NPBTs form a synergistic breeding ecosystem that can rapidly generate climate-ready, low-input cultivars essential for global food and nutritional security.