Climate change and adaptation: Planning future germplasm collections

Securing the most crop genetic diversity will be essential for continuous future food production in the face of an increasingly changing climate. Extraordinary action is required to prepare systems of food production for future climate conditions, especially given the long development time needed for new varieties. Crop wild relatives constitute a vast and diverse potential resource for future plant breeding programs to increase the adaptation of crops to predicted climate patterns, and to counter the threat of future food shortage. Strategies for the enhancement of germplasm diversity, including more targeted collecting will pave the way for access to plant genetic resources that will provide material for overcoming future climatic stress.