How scientists are developing climate-resilient grains

Crops such as wheat and rice are being adapted to withstand extreme weather with the help of genetic advances.

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For centuries, farmers have bred crops to produce bigger, better harvests. Climate change is making another task increasingly urgent: developing grains that can withstand the heat, drought and floods that threaten food production. Scientists have used advances in genetics to develop drought-tolerant wheat, while rice has been bred to survive temporary submergence — in some cases taking inspiration from the wild relatives of crops. The promise is protection against increasingly hostile weather but the resulting seed varieties must produce reliable harvests at a price farmers can afford. How does it work? The starting point is finding plants with characteristics worth passing on. Breeders cross them, grow their offspring and select those that perform best. Genetic screening helps identify promising plants before they reach maturity. Some useful characteristics lie outside commercial varieties. Wheat is already “a mosaic”, says Anthony Hall, head of plant genomics at life sciences research centre the Earlham Institute, reflecting its history of crosses with related plants. Its wild relatives and older varieties contain genetic diversity that researchers can draw on to improve heat tolerance. “Speed breeding” uses extended lighting and controlled temperatures to squeeze up to six generations of spring wheat into a year. Gene editing makes changes to DNA, while genetic modification can introduce a gene from another species: HB4 wheat developed by Argentina’s Bioceres Crop Solutions carries a sunflower gene associated with drought tolerance.

Researchers are also developing artificial intelligence tools to identify which genetic changes matter. “What a genome large language model does is it understands the language of DNA,” says Hall. US agrichemicals company Corteva and China’s Syngenta are both developing hybrid wheat, crossing distinct parent lines to produce stronger-performing offspring. This approach is well established in maize but wheat is more difficult as it normally fertilises itself, complicating hybrid seed production. Syngenta uses a system that makes the seed-producing parent male sterile, preventing self-pollination and allowing it to be crossed, says Stéphane Bodenreider, Syngenta’s head of seed field crops, Europe. Hybrid breeding does not in itself involve gene editing or introducing foreign genes.

Researchers are also mapping what happens inside individual plant cells. An Adelaide University-led consortium aims to build a biological atlas of wheat to understand how it develops and responds to stress. The work could help identify the basis of “important heat-sensitive traits, such as flower fertility or grain quality”, says Matthew Tucker, director of the university’s Waite Research Institute. What are the pros and cons? Better seeds could help farmers protect harvests without installing expensive irrigation systems or abandoning familiar crops. Flood-tolerant rice, for example, can survive periods underwater that would damage conventional varieties. Some wheat results are striking. Corteva says its research trials showed these flood-tolerant hybrids yield roughly 20 per cent more than other elite varieties in water-stressed environments. But a promising trial result does not guarantee a better harvest everywhere. A variety must suit local conditions, resist disease and produce grain that millers and food manufacturers want to buy.

“Farmers won’t accept a crop that performs better in difficult years but compromises performance in good years, and neither will we,” says Bodenreider. Conventional crosses can also introduce unwanted characteristics alongside a useful trait. Hall says breeders may need “lots and lots of crosses to get rid of all the rubbish”. Targeted editing could accelerate that work. The economics also matter. More expensive seed must earn its cost back. With hybrids, farmers cannot reliably reproduce the same performance by saving grain to sow the following season because the hybrid seeds’ offspring can be inconsistent. Will it save the planet? The immediate goal is to keep people fed as the planet warms and the population grows. Crops that tolerate harsher conditions can help limit losses, but they do not remove the need to cut emissions. A 2025 Nature study estimated that each degree of global warming would reduce production from six major staple crops by the equivalent of 120 calories per person per day, or about 4.4 per cent of recommended daily consumption. Moving crops into new growing regions would bring further challenges, for example that “day length might be very different”, says Hall. Some breeding programmes aim to tackle emissions directly. Agricultural research centres JIRCAS and CIMMYT in Japan have developed experimental wheat whose roots release compounds that slow a soil process called nitrification. This can help retain nitrogen for plants and reduce emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas. Weather resilience does not automatically mean a smaller environmental footprint, however. Research in India, for instance, found that farmers given access to flood-tolerant rice used more fertiliser and cultivated more land. Has it arrived yet? Some of it is already in farmers’ fields. In 2021, CIMMYT reported that about 8.6mn farmers in sub-Saharan Africa had benefited from climate-adaptive maize varieties. New commercial wheat products are following. Syngenta has launched X-Terra in France and a UK introduction is planned from 2027. Corteva has targeted a North American hybrid wheat launch as early as 2027. Bioceres’ partnership with the Colorado Wheat Research Foundation aims to bring HB4 wheat to the US. Who are the winners and losers? Farmers could gain more dependable harvests, while seed companies stand to earn sales and licensing income. But patents and licensing arrangements raise questions about seed prices, farmers’ ability to save and replant seed, and other breeders’ access to useful traits. Expensive or restrictive access could put improved crops beyond the reach of some growers. Publicly funded programmes offer another model, such as the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which says seeds developed through its CropSustaiN initiative, which aims to reduce wheat’s nitrogen footprint, will be accessible without exclusive patent rights. Who is investing? Established seed businesses are pursuing commercial products while newer entrants are attracting venture funding. Oxford university spinout Wild Bioscience announced a $60mn funding round led by the Ellison Institute of Technology in October 2025, and acquired wheat breeder F1 Seed in July. Governments and philanthropic foundations also fund research. Britain’s BBSRC supports the Delivering Sustainable Wheat research programme, while the Novo Nordisk Foundation awarded CIMMYT up to $21.1mn in 2024 for CropSustaiN.

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