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How crops are being disaster-proofed - BBC News

Scientists are creating hardier crops by cross-breeding wild varities and tweaking crop genes.

Image caption, Agronomists in Peru have been searching for wild potato varieties Article information Author, Christine Ro Role, Technology Reporter Image caption, "Scuba Rice" can withstand weeks of submergence in water during floods.Mr Kilian leads the Crop Trust’s Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (Bold) project, which brings together partners including community seed banks, national breeding programmes, and international research centres. Brad Ringeisen, the executive director of the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) at the University of California (Berkeley and San Francisco), believes that gene editing using tools like Crispr-Cas9 is the most impactful way of ensuring that crops can withstand disasters.

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