GenAdapt: Enhanced genomic selection for breeding crop adaptation to climate change

Tandem Industry Academia Professorship financed by the Finnish Research Impact Foundation (Vaikuttavuussäätö). Climate change poses significant challenges to crop production through extreme weather events, affecting food security and farmers’ incomes. Plant breeding is crucial in agriculture to develop new, more climate-resilient crop varieties. However, current breeding models assume that a plant variety has the same potential regardless of the environment, which is not the case in reality. This reduces the success of plant breeding as the environment changes with climate change. To solve this, we will develop breeding models to incorporate weather data, enabling the breeding of crop varieties that are better adapted to future climates. This new breeding model can improve the resilience of crops to climate extremes, thereby reducing risks in crop production.