Food Security in the 21st Century: Envisioning R&D Strategies for Meeting the Demand
Date: Monday, 30 April – Tuesday, 1 May, 2018
Location: ACES Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1101 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL
To avoid a world food crisis and meet the demand of an additional 3.6 billion people by the year 2100, agricultural productivity will need to increase each year while adjusting to more frequent and severe environmental stresses associated with climate change. Of particular concern, yields of our most important staple crops are not currently increasing at a rate sufficient to meet future demands. However, recent technological advances, such as low-cost genomic sequencing, genome editing, high-throughput phenotyping, and big data analytics are providing new R&D opportunities. In this symposium, researchers will share their visions for addressing this critically important challenge for humanity. Symposium sessions will focus on: 1) mining germplasm banks efficiently and effectively, 2) training the next generation of agricultural scientists, 3) addressing abiotic and biotic stresses in the context of climate change, and 4) improving photosynthesis.
A summary of the symposium is presented here.
