Shubham,

That is quite a complex question. While much work is being done on that topic, it is very challenging to make progress. One reason would be the Genotype X Environment interaction that is such a challenge for plant breeders. There may not always be consistency among cultivars that perform well in stress vs. non-stess environments.

Even with tools like omics, transgenics, etcs., it is still necessary to consider how a given cultivar will interact with the environment. Since many of the most productive regions are low stress due to fertile soil and inputs (i.e. fertilizer, irrigation, etc.), the best performing cultivars will be focused on these areas.

With more awareness on climate change and the limitation of resources like water and fertilizer, more breeding efforts are focusing on stressful environments.

Below are a few links to show some of the work that is ongoing on this important topic.

https://www.worldfoodprize.org/index.cfm?nodeID=87458&audienceID=1

http://www.plantstress.com/Breeding/Breeding.htm

http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783642305528

http://plantbreedingfordroughttolerance.colostate.edu/online_course.html

Best wishes for your research!

Chris

There are a lot of plant scientists reduce the gap between plants potential yield and its actual yield due abiotic stresses. But the main problem is that farmers, especially in the third world countries did not apply the findings of these scientists.

I don't think plant science today is very successful in increasing the yield of crops in more or less unsuitable environments. The bulk of improvements came with the Green Revolution and the increased use of artificial fertilisers. Since then not much has happened in this area, despite genomics. Even today, most scientific findings, for example regarding plant nutrition, are not implemented, which leads to a poor performance. Often lower yielding ancient varieties do better in such environments than modern high yielding ones. However, the use of modern varieties is promoted by international corporations, to the detriment of small farmers in developing countries. These varieties depend on a constant flow of water and nutrients which is not present in these regions. Large areas in Africa and other parts of the world are now becoming depopulated because of the effects of climate change and drought. Clearly there is no solution offered by modern plant science to these world wide problems. These problems are aggravated by the looming depletion of phosphorus, which will soon not be available anymore, at least not at the prices we see now. Nobody seems to care. Drought can only be combated in the long run by stopping deforestation worldwide and rehabilitating degraded areas on a large scale, or even on a small scale, for example by planting hedges and trees along fields. Trees and shrubs are needed to cool the atmosphere above them, thus causing clouds to rain. We should go back to the ways of our forefathers, learn from the way they lived and farmed and adapt their knowledge to challenging situations.

First and foremost, most of the transgenic plants produced are tolerant to one kind of environmental stress factor yet in

the reality, plants are attacked by multiple abiotic factors at once.

There is dire need to identify genes that can confer resistance to multiple abiotic stress factors.

Secondly, most countries especially in Africa have not assented to modern plant

biotechnology. They don't have laws that regulate GMOs hence most of the field trials are not released into the market.