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Food security in 2044: How do we control the fungal threat?
- Kettles, Graeme J., Luna, Estrella
- Fungal biology 2019 v.123 no.8 pp. 558-564
- agricultural productivity, agrochemicals, control methods, crop yield, disease control, farming systems, food security, industry, plant breeding, plant disease resistance, plant diseases and disorders, plant pathogenic fungi, resistance genes
- Plant fungal pathogens place considerable strain on agricultural productivity and threaten global food security. In recent decades, advances in crop breeding, farming practice and the agrochemical industry have allowed crop yields to keep pace with food demand. In this opinion article, we speculate on which recent technological advances will allow us to maintain this situation into the future. We take inspiration that it is 25 y since the first plant disease resistance genes were cloned, and imagine if and how agricultural control of pathogens will be achieved by the year 2044. We examine which technologies are best poised to make the jump from lab bench to field application, and propose that future control measures will likely depend on effective integrated disease management.