Rice-Plus?

An international agricultural research group is urging nations to invest in the development of new crop varieties in response to global warming and a projected world population of 9 billion by 2050.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, which comprises a global network of seed banks and ag research facilities, says growing seasons will be shortened by rising temperatures and that new crop varieties are needed to withstand increased heat, salt, flooding, and drought. Louis Verchot of the World Agroforestry Centre in Kenya, a member institute of CGIAR, told the BBC:

We're talking about challenges that have to be dealt with at every level, from ideas about social justice to the technology of food production. We're talking about large-scale human migration and the return to large-scale famines in developing countries, something which we decided 40 or 50 years ago was unacceptable and did something about.

Inevitably, say ag experts, this will mean more genetic modifications to existing crops, despite widespread misgivings about transgenic species. One goal of plant geneticists, for example, will be to ramp up the photosynthetic efficiency of rice. Says Verchot:

I can understand the opposition to GM, and I sympathize to a certain extent with it. But in developing countries we're dealing with a crisis situation; and whatever tool is available, we need to apply it to that situation.