B.Y. Morrison Lecturer: Developing Strategies for Sustainable Production in a Changing Global Climate Scenario: Merging Physiological and Genetic Approaches

Objective(s):
Featured Speaker: Dr. Jiwan Palta Department of Horticulture University of Wisconsin, Madison Environmental stresses including cold, heat, drought and flooding cause major losses in food production every year all around the world. Global climate change scenario predicts erratic weather patterns making the impact of these stresses more severe and unpredictable. Approaches to mitigate the impact of these environmental stresses should include: (i) Understanding mechanisms of injury and adaptation to environmental stresses, (ii) Understanding and exploiting genetic variations for traits linked to these mechanisms in wild and cultivated germplasm, (iii) Developing strategies to move these traits to develop new cultivars with potential to sustain productivity under unfavorable environment, (iv) Developing production practices that mitigate the impact of these stresses on crop production. Breeders and physiologists need to join forces to make real progress in this endeavor.