Adapting agriculture to climate change

Adapting agriculture to climate change is one of the most urgent challenges of our time. There is, quite simply, no more important step we can take to prepare for climate change than to ensure that the crops that feed humanity are adapted.

Gene Bank managers outside Kew's Millennium Seed Bank

Gene bank managers from international agriculture research centres outside Kew's Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst, West Sussex. Image: Wolfgang Stuppy.

Crops for our future

The importance of developing new crop varieties that are productive in future climates is now widely recognised, but our ability to breed these new crops should not be taken for granted. The greatest source of material for breeding new crop varieties that can adapt to our changing climate are the wild relatives of existing crops. This is because crop wild relatives offer the richest source of diversity and in turn, the adaptive characteristics needed to enable new crop varieties to confront the challenges of climate change.

Safeguarding and using crop wild relatives

Unfortunately, crop wild relatives are largely uncollected and therefore they are largely unevaluated and unavailable to plant breeders and farmers. Many of these crop wild relatives are also at risk of extinction.

Through its seed collection programme, the ‘Adapting agriculture to climate change’ project will ensure that we are better placed to safeguard crop wild relatives for our future and prepare them for use in plant breeding programmes. This work will enable us to develop the much needed new crop varieties that are adapted to our changing climate.