Giving Compass' Take:
- Environmental News Network examines a study suggesting that breeding crops for an extreme climate has been detrimental to crop performance under normal weather conditions.
- Since climate projections for the next 50 years show that weather patterns will be both extreme and normal, how can donors fund research on breeding crops for varying weather conditions?
- Learn more about how climate change threatens crop diversity.
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U.S. corn and soybean varieties have become increasingly heat and drought resistant as agricultural production adapts to a changing climate. But the focus on developing crops for extreme conditions has negatively affected performance under normal weather patterns, a University of Illinois study shows.
“Since the 1950s, advances in breeding and management practices have made corn and soybean more resilient to extreme heat and drought. However, there is a cost for it. Crop productivity with respect to the normal temperature and precipitation is getting lower,” says Chengzheng Yu, doctoral student in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE) at the University of Illinois and lead author on the new paper, published in Scientific Reports.
Read the full article about U.S. corn and soybeans at Environmental News Network.