Feeding the extra billions: strategies to improve crops and enhance future food security

The ability to feed an expanding world population poses one of the greatest challenges to mankind in the future. Accompanying the increased demand for food by the expected nine billion inhabitants of Earth in 2050 will be a continual decrease in arable land area, together with a decline in crop yield due to a variety of stresses. For these formidable challenges to be met, future crops should not only by high-yielding, but also stress-tolerant and disease-resistant. In this review, we highlight the importance of genetic engineering as an indispensable tool to generate just such future crops. We briefly discuss strategies and available tools for biotechnological crop improvement and identify selected examples of candidate genes that may be manipulated so that current biological maxima in yield may be surpassed by comfortable margins. Future prospects and the necessity for basic research aimed at identifying novel target genes are also discussed.     

Microbiome engineering: Current applications and its future

Microbiomes exist in all ecosystems and are composed of diverse microbial communities. Perturbation to microbiomes brings about undesirable phenotypes in the hosts, resulting in diseases and disorders, and disturbs the balance of the associated ecosystems. Engineering of microbiomes can be used to modify structures of the microbiota and restore ecological balance. Consequently, microbiome engineering has been employed for improving human health and agricultural productivity. The importance and current applications of microbiome engineering, particularly in humans, animals, plants and soil is reviewed. Furthermore, we explore the challenges in engineering microbiome and the future of this field, thus providing perspectives and outlook of microbiome engineering.     

Plant biotechnology for food security and bioeconomy

This year is a special year for plant biotechnology. It was 30 years ago, on January 18 1983, one of the most important dates in the history of plant biotechnology, that three independent groups described Agrobacterium tumefaciens—mediated genetic transformation at the Miami Winter Symposium, leading to the production of normal, fertile transgenic plants (Bevan et al. in Nature 304:184–187, 1983; Fraley et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 80:4803–4807, 1983; Herrera-Estrella et al. in EMBO J 2:987–995, 1983; Vasil in Plant Cell Rep 27:1432–1440, 2008). Since then, plant biotechnology has rapidly advanced into a useful and valuable tool and has made a significant impact on crop production, development of a biotech industry and the bio-based economy worldwide.     

Climate change and food security

Dynamic interactions between and within the biogeophysical and human environments lead to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food, resulting in food systems that underpin food security. Food systems encompass food availability (production, distribution and exchange), food access (affordability, allocation and preference) and food utilization (nutritional and societal values and safety), so that food security is, therefore, diminished when food systems are stressed. Such stresses may be induced by a range of factors in addition to climate change and/or other agents of environmental change (e.g. conflict, HIV/AIDS) and may be particularly severe when these factors act in combination. Urbanization and globalization are causing rapid changes to food systems. Climate change may affect food systems in several ways ranging from direct effects on crop production (e.g. changes in rainfall leading to drought or flooding, or warmer or cooler temperatures leading to changes in the length of growing season), to changes in markets, food prices and supply chain infrastructure. The relative importance of climate change for food security differs between regions. For example, in southern Africa, climate is among the most frequently cited drivers of food insecurity because it acts both as an underlying, ongoing issue and as a short-lived shock. The low ability to cope with shocks and to mitigate long-term stresses means that coping strategies that might be available in other regions are unavailable or inappropriate. In other regions, though, such as parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain of India, other drivers, such as labour issues and the availability and quality of ground water for irrigation, rank higher than the direct effects of climate change as factors influencing food security. Because of the multiple socio-economic and bio-physical factors affecting food systems and hence food security, the capacity to adapt food systems to reduce their vulnerability to climate change is not uniform. Improved systems of food production, food distribution and economic access may all contribute to food systems adapted to cope with climate change, but in adopting such changes it will be important to ensure that they contribute to sustainability. Agriculture is a major contributor of the greenhouse gases methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), so that regionally derived policies promoting adapted food systems need to mitigate further climate change.     

A genetic solution for the global food security crisis

<正>Due to the rapid increase in population and the decreasing availability of arable land and freshwater resources per capita,global crop production will need to double by 2050 to meet human food demand.In early March,the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) of the United Nations released a report saying that 45 countries are in urgent need of food aid and millions of people are in severe hunger(https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture/brief/food-security-update)...     

未来食品的低碳生物制造

受到人口增长过快、社会经济发展水平不平衡、人口老龄化和不健康饮食方式等影响,人类面临着食品和营养缺乏、部分人群中营养相关疾病高发等问题。同时,社会低碳发展的需求呼唤一种可持续的食物供给模式。因此,既能满足消费者口感和营养需求,又是绿色可持续食物供给模式的技术,例如功能糖、人造肉等未来食品技术,受到了广泛的关注。近年,新兴的生物制造技术及产品得到了迅猛发展,将会支撑形成绿色、低碳的未来食品产业,引发传统生产模式的深刻变革,是新兴生物经济的重大战略发展方向。本文聚焦于未来食品——功能糖、微生物蛋白及人造肉等关键辅配料的生物制造技术研究,追踪其在细胞工厂构建、工业环境下菌种测试与过程优化和衍生产品开发等研究的最新进展,展望未来的发展趋势,旨在为微生物制造未来食品的产业发展提供指导。     

Bee and non-bee pollinator importance for local food security

Pollinators are critical for food security; however, their contribution to the pollination of locally important crops is still unclear, especially for non-bee pollinators. We reviewed the diversity, conservation status, and role of bee and non-bee pollinators in 83 different crops described either as important for the global food market or of local importance. Bees are the most commonly recorded crop floral visitors. However, non-bee pollinators are frequently recorded visitors to crops of local importance. Non-bee pollinators in tropical ecosystems include nocturnal insects, bats, and birds. Importantly, nocturnal pollinators are neglected in current diurnal-oriented research and are experiencing declines. The integration of non-bee pollinators into scientific studies and conservation agenda is urgently required for more sustainable agriculture and safeguarding food security for both globally and locally important crops.     

Reconciling food security and bioenergy: priorities for action

Understanding the complex interactions among food security, bioenergy sustainability, and resource management requires a focus on specific contextual problems and opportunities. The United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals place a high priority on food and energy security; bioenergy plays an important role in achieving both goals. Effective food security programs begin by clearly defining the problem and asking, ‘What can be done to assist people at high risk?’ Simplistic global analyses, headlines, and cartoons that blame biofuels for food insecurity may reflect good intentions but mislead the public and policymakers because they obscure the main drivers of local food insecurity and ignore opportunities for bioenergy to contribute to solutions. Applying sustainability guidelines to bioenergy will help achieve near‐ and long‐term goals to eradicate hunger. Priorities for achieving successful synergies between bioenergy and food security include the following: (1) clarifying communications with clear and consistent terms, (2) recognizing that food and bioenergy need not compete for land and, instead, should be integrated to improve resource management, (3) investing in technology, rural extension, and innovations to build capacity and infrastructure, (4) promoting stable prices that incentivize local production, (5) adopting flex crops that can provide food along with other products and services to society, and (6) engaging stakeholders to identify and assess specific opportunities for biofuels to improve food security. Systematic monitoring and analysis to support adaptive management and continual improvement are essential elements to build synergies and help society equitably meet growing demands for both food and energy.     

The role of crustacean fisheries and aquaculture in global food security: past, present and future

The 1996 World Food Summit defined food security as "Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life". This paper looks at the status of production from both shrimp capture fisheries and shrimp aquaculture, as well as trade, in order to understand the contribution of the crustacean sector to overall fish production and thus to global food security. This paper also examines some sustainability issues that will potentially affect the contribution of the crustacean sector (particularly shrimp) to food security. These include sustainable shrimp capture fisheries, sustainable shrimp trade and sustainable shrimp aquaculture. The paper concludes that crustaceans are an important source of aquatic food protein. Production (as food and ornamental) and trade are extremely important for developing countries. It provides both economic development and empowerment in terms of contribution to GDP, consumption, employment, catch value and exports. The crustacean sector generates high value export products which enables producers to buy lower value products in the world market - thus a positive contribution to food security in both producing and exporting countries.     

Meeting the challenge of food and energy security

Growing crops for bioenergy or biofuels is increasingly viewed as conflicting with food production. However, energy use continues to rise and food production requires fuel inputs, which have increased with intensification. Focussing on the question of food or fuel is thus not helpful. The bigger, more pertinent, challenge is how the increasing demands for food and energy can be met in the future, particularly when water and land availability will be limited. Energy crop production systems differ greatly in environmental impact. The use of high-input food crops for liquid transport fuels (first-generation biofuels) needs to be phased out and replaced by the use of crop residues and low-input perennial crops (second/advanced-generation biofuels) with multiple environmental benefits. More research effort is needed to improve yields of biomass crops grown on lower grade land, and maximum value should be extracted through the exploitation of co-products and integrated biorefinery systems. Policy must continually emphasize the changes needed and tie incentives to improved greenhous gas reduction and environmental performance of biofuels.     

未来气候变化情景下河南省粮食安全气候承载力评估

为探究未来气候变化对河南省粮食生产的影响,基于夏玉米和冬小麦两种主粮作物的生产潜力和气候资源承载力,结合1961—2017年河南省111个气象站的观测数据以及区域气候模式输出的2041—2080年RCP4.5和RCP8.5两种排放情景下的气象资料,采用农业生态区域法(AEZ模型)计算了河南省气候生产潜力及其变化特征,并根据不同生活水平下的粮食需求指标,分析了河南省的气候承载力和剩余空间。结果表明: 1961—2017年,河南省夏玉米气候生产潜力平均为18408.87 kg·hm^-2,表现为中东部高、西部低;与基准时段(1981—2010年)相比,RCP4.5和RCP8.5情景下分别下降13.0%和8.0%,高值中心由豫东地区向豫西南地区转移。1961—2017年,冬小麦气候生产潜力平均值为10889.79 kg·hm^-2,呈中部高、北部低;与基准时段相比,RCP4.5和RCP8.5情景下分别减少18.6%、21.7%。当前,在温饱水平和小康水平粮食需求条件下,最大气候资源承载力分别平均养活人口2.52亿和1.83亿。2070s(2071—2080年)最大气候资源承载力平均养活人口有所减少,与基准时段相比,RCP4.5情景下小康水平和温饱水平分别下降9.7%和18.4%,RCP8.5情景下小康水平和温饱水平分别下降7.7%和16.6%。当前气候条件下,河南省气候资源相对剩余率在-93.0%～356.9%,与基准时段相比,未来气候资源相对剩余率减少近40%。     

Filamentous fungi for future functional food and feed

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Potential and attainable food production and food security in different regions

Growing prosperity in the South is accompanied by human diets that will claim more natural resources per capita. This reality, combined with growing populations, may raise the global demand for food crops two- to four-fold within two generations. Considering the large volume of natural resources and potential crop yields, it seems that this demand can be met smoothly. However, this is a fallacy for the following reasons. (i) Geographic regions differ widely in their potential food security: policy choices for agricultural use of natural resources are limited in Asia. For example, to ensure national self-sufficiency and food security, most of the suitable land (China) and nearly all of the surface water (India) are needed. Degradation restricts options further. (ii) The attainable level of agricultural production depends also on socio-economic conditions. Extensive poverty keeps the attainable food production too low to achieve food security, even when the yield gap is wide, as in Africa. (iii) Bio-energy, non-food crops and nature compete with food crops for natural resources. Global and regional food security are attainable, but only with major efforts. Strategies to achieve alternative aims will be discussed. <br>     

基于生态系统服务价值与粮食安全的生态安全底线核算

河北省沿海经济的快速发展导致滨海土地利用结构快速转变,威胁土地生态安全.针对性核算滨海土地生态系统服务价值并测算生态安全底线可为区域生态保护和修复提供依据.本文以河北省东南部黄骅市为研究区,科学地选择生态安全与粮食安全的结合点、设计结合通道并创建结合方式,利用生态系统服务价值和粮食安全标准进行生态安全底线测算.结果表明： 2011年,研究区各地类单位面积生态系统服务价值大小依次为： 湿地＞水域＞园地＞耕地＞草地＞其他土地＞盐田＞盐碱地＞建设用地;各单项生态系统服务价值贡献率从大到小依次为： 养分循环＞水源涵养＞娱乐文化＞物质生产＞生物多样性维持＞气体调节＞气候调节＞净化环境;单位面积耕地粮食产量底线为0.21 kg·m^-2,粮食产值底线为0.41 元·m^-2,单位面积土地生态系统服务价值底线为21.58 元·m^-2,研究区土地生态服务总价值底线值为42.44亿元;2081年研究区生态安全达到底线,以人为主体的生态系统将濒临崩溃.根据生态安全状况,黄骅市可分为生态核心保护区、生态缓冲区、生态恢复区和人类活动核心区.