Researchers urge single approach to crop breeding as IRRI expands low emission rice work

PHILIPPINES – An international team of scientists has called for a major change in crop improvement, saying future breeding efforts should increase food production, improve nutrition, and strengthen climate resilience through one combined approach instead of treating each goal separately.

The researchers, including scientists from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), say the need has become more urgent as climate change continues to affect food production while millions of people still face hunger and poor nutrition. More than 700 million people remain undernourished, while over two billion people suffer from hidden hunger caused by a lack of essential vitamins and minerals.

The team says past crop improvement programmes have delivered strong results by increasing yields, improving tolerance to drought and heat, or raising nutrient levels. However, they argue that current food system challenges require crops that can meet all these needs at the same time.

The recommendations appear in two newly published papers prepared by researchers from IRRI, Ghent University, and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology. The studies explain how artificial intelligence, precision breeding, genome editing, and the use of crop genetic diversity can speed up the development of crops that combine higher productivity, better nutrition, and stronger climate resilience.

“Eradicating all forms of hunger is one of the most challenging tasks of this century. By integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven discovery, precision genome editing, and climate resilient breeding, the scientific community will be able to bridge the gap between crop productivity and human nutrition under climate change,” said Dr. Nese Sreenivasulu, Principal Scientist at IRRI and one of the paper’s authors.

IRRI Director General Dr. Yvonne Pinto said the studies show that crop improvement should address food production, nutrition, and climate resilience together rather than separately.

“The triple burden of climate change, declining productivity, and hidden hunger cannot be addressed in isolation. These two studies show that crop improvement is no longer about optimizing one trait at a time or choosing between productivity, nutrition, and resilience. It is about integrating all three, a sum of the parts approach, to develop crops that deliver for farmers, consumers, and the planet,” she said.

The research comes as IRRI continues to expand work on climate smart rice production. On June 29, 2026, the institute signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Creattura Philippines Inc. to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from rice fields in the Philippines.

The agreement marks the first collaboration under the Accelerating Development and Scaling of Agricultural Innovations for Reducing GHG Emissions in ASEAN Countries project, which Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and IRRI support. The partners will work together on greenhouse gas measurement, laboratory analysis, technical coordination, and data sharing to improve the quality and credibility of emissions data from rice farming.

“This is more than the formalization of a partnership. It is a tangible expression of what becomes possible when the right science meets the right partners. The bridge between the laboratory and the farmer’s field is where impact is made, and we are proud to be building that bridge together with Creattura,” Pinto said.

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