to unlock the masked beneficial traits in crop plants to set forth an unprecedented
leap in productivity and sustainability across primary industries.
Keywords
Biofuels · Chassis · N 2 fixation · Photosynthesis · Phytosensors · Stress · Synthetic
Biology
15.1 Introduction
The universal population is likely to go up to 9.8 billion by 2050 (UN DESA 2017).
Although the intensification in global food production (supported by appropriate
research, policies, adoption of high-yielding crop varieties, industrial revolt) has kept
pace with growing population size over the past five decades, almost a billion
people, most of who reside in the developing countries, suffer from inadequate
diets and insecure food supplies (Varshney et al. 2011). Moreover increasing
revenues and urbanization are driving a shift from traditional diets to processed
foods, fortified with superior sugars, fats, oils and meats. This global dietary
transition if remains unchecked necessitates an upsurge in the field of agriculture
(nearly 70% augment in global food production by 2050) at a substantially faster
speed than that approximated solely considering global population size (Ray et al.
2013). Unfortunately, this would be a principal sector contributing an approximated
80 per cent augment in the emission of agricultural greenhouse gases and to land
clearing at a global scale (Tilman and Clark 2014). Further challenges to agriculture
include desertification, salination, increased use of chemical fertilizers, exhaustion of
aquifers used for irrigation, marginal soils, ecological and animal safety regulation,
the rising trend of ‘food as medicine’. These challenges along with competing claims
for arable land, water, labour, energy and capital suggest that existing agricultural
practices are also ecologically unsustainable (Varshney et al. 2011; Alexandratos
and Bruinsma 2012; South et al. 2019). However, exploiting natural resources even
further, for example, expanding cropland will lead to additional loss of biodiversity
(Ort et al. 2015), thus directing toward technological innovations facilitating amplification of crop yield per unit area land as a principal objective (Long et al. 2006).
Under existing agricultural practices planting density has by now reached its limit
and yield-expansion rate of main crop plants has achieved their maxima, thus an
improvement in the performance of plants at individual levels inside a crop canopy is
a key focus to meet the concomitant increase in demand for food and agricultural
products (Weber and Bar-Even 2019).
There is an alarming call for improvement in plant characteristics for better crop
performance, chiefly to augment their yield and stress tolerance to adapt to adverse
environments. Moreover, there are many de novo functions for plants to perform,
such as biosensing and producing valuable compounds (Liu et al. 2013a, b).
Researchers are working toward the next generation of crops that more economically
use inputs for growth and alleviate environmental stress. In this biological era, the
436
P. Singla
leap in productivity and sustainability across primary industries.
Keywords
Biofuels · Chassis · N 2 fixation · Photosynthesis · Phytosensors · Stress · Synthetic
Biology
15.1 Introduction
The universal population is likely to go up to 9.8 billion by 2050 (UN DESA 2017).
Although the intensification in global food production (supported by appropriate
research, policies, adoption of high-yielding crop varieties, industrial revolt) has kept
pace with growing population size over the past five decades, almost a billion
people, most of who reside in the developing countries, suffer from inadequate
diets and insecure food supplies (Varshney et al. 2011). Moreover increasing
revenues and urbanization are driving a shift from traditional diets to processed
foods, fortified with superior sugars, fats, oils and meats. This global dietary
transition if remains unchecked necessitates an upsurge in the field of agriculture
(nearly 70% augment in global food production by 2050) at a substantially faster
speed than that approximated solely considering global population size (Ray et al.
2013). Unfortunately, this would be a principal sector contributing an approximated
80 per cent augment in the emission of agricultural greenhouse gases and to land
clearing at a global scale (Tilman and Clark 2014). Further challenges to agriculture
include desertification, salination, increased use of chemical fertilizers, exhaustion of
aquifers used for irrigation, marginal soils, ecological and animal safety regulation,
the rising trend of ‘food as medicine’. These challenges along with competing claims
for arable land, water, labour, energy and capital suggest that existing agricultural
practices are also ecologically unsustainable (Varshney et al. 2011; Alexandratos
and Bruinsma 2012; South et al. 2019). However, exploiting natural resources even
further, for example, expanding cropland will lead to additional loss of biodiversity
(Ort et al. 2015), thus directing toward technological innovations facilitating amplification of crop yield per unit area land as a principal objective (Long et al. 2006).
Under existing agricultural practices planting density has by now reached its limit
and yield-expansion rate of main crop plants has achieved their maxima, thus an
improvement in the performance of plants at individual levels inside a crop canopy is
a key focus to meet the concomitant increase in demand for food and agricultural
products (Weber and Bar-Even 2019).
There is an alarming call for improvement in plant characteristics for better crop
performance, chiefly to augment their yield and stress tolerance to adapt to adverse
environments. Moreover, there are many de novo functions for plants to perform,
such as biosensing and producing valuable compounds (Liu et al. 2013a, b).
Researchers are working toward the next generation of crops that more economically
use inputs for growth and alleviate environmental stress. In this biological era, the
436
P. Singla