Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics for Climate-Resilient and High-Yield Cereal Crop Improvement

Abstract

Climate change poses a significant threat to global cereal production by increasing the frequency and intensity of drought, heat stress, salinity, flooding, and emerging pests and diseases. Ensuring food security for a growing global population requires the development of climate-resilient and high-yield cereal crop varieties through advanced plant breeding, genetics, and genomics. This review paper examines recent advances in plant breeding, genetics, and genomics for improving major cereal crops, including rice, wheat, maize, barley, sorghum, and millet. The study explores conventional breeding approaches alongside modern genomic technologies such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS), genomic selection, marker-assisted selection, quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, CRISPR-Cas genome editing, and multi-omics integration for identifying and manipulating genes associated with stress tolerance, yield potential, and grain quality. Furthermore, the review discusses the application of high-throughput phenotyping, artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, and precision breeding technologies in accelerating crop improvement and enhancing breeding efficiency. Recent developments demonstrate that integrating genomics with climate-smart breeding strategies can improve resilience against abiotic and biotic stresses while increasing productivity and resource use efficiency. However, challenges including complex trait inheritance, genotype-by-environment interactions, limited genetic diversity, regulatory constraints, and unequal access to advanced breeding technologies continue to influence breeding outcomes. This review synthesizes current developments and highlights the transformative role of plant breeding, genetics, and genomics in developing climate-resilient and high-yield cereal crops for sustainable agriculture and global food security.