Prioritising crop wild relatives to enhance agricultural resilience in sub‐Saharan Africa under climate change

Abstract

Social Impact Statement Climate change is expected to disproportionately affect sub‐Saharan Africa in the next century, posing a threat to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and deepening food insecurity. To adapt to this threat, more climate‐resilient crops need to be brought into the food system; these may be developed through breeding with crop wild relatives with key traits to cope with climate change. Here, we assess the level of open‐access trait documentation of crop wild relatives of 29 important crops, their resilience, how threatened they are in situ, how well they are preserved ex situ and we provide priorities for their conservation and use in breeding programmes. Summary Climate change is projected to adversely affect smallholder agriculture in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) over the next century, with many areas becoming unsuitable for growing crops. Breeding programmes using crop wild relatives (CWRs) that are pre‐adapted to projected future climatic conditions may lead to more resilient crops, but their traits have not been screened across a large diversity of CWRs. Furthermore, many are threatened and require greater protection in situ and ex situ to prevent the loss of an important adaptive solution to climate change. A previous ecogeographical study found that 303 out of 836 CWRs of 29 major crops cultivated across SSA may represent priorities for future crop resilience. Here, we assessed the availability of trait information and compared traits between resilient and non‐resilient CWRs. Subsequently, we analysed the conservation status of CWRs in situ and ex situ to set new global priorities for protection. Our findings show that the traits of many CWRs are poorly described, but for those species with better coverage, key differences between resilient and non‐resilient CWRs were identified, including lower plant height amongst resilient CWRs of tree crops (arabica and robusta coffee, mango and cacao) and a higher likelihood of invasive CWRs to be resilient. We found that 14% and 36% of resilient CWRs are threatened in situ and absent from seed collections, respectively. Our study highlights CWR priorities for conservation based on resilience. A concerted international effort is recommended to conserve CWRs and improve agricultural resilience in a changing climate.

Seeing roots from space: aboveground fingerprints of root depth in vegetation sensitivity to climate in dry biomes

“…These applications can be extended to agricultural systems in Africa, where along with aridification, irrigation of crops is very limited. Our findings support calls for a shifted focus in drylands to crops with resilient traits (Satori et al 2021), such as enhanced root investment, which preliminary findings suggest could be favoured under future climates (Manners et al 2021). Additional benefits of this approach could exist for crops where yield is gained from belowground plant parts, which might be less affected by short-term drought than aboveground plant parts.…”

Ecological and genomic vulnerability to climate change across native populations of Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora)

“…Therefore, in a scenario of climate change, wild populations have the potential to host genotypes that could cope with new climatic conditions better than the varieties currently cultivated. It has therefore become common practice to search for desirable traits in wild types to improve cultivated varieties (Satori et al, 2021). In this context, the study of genomic vulnerability of wild Coffea species in their native range could help identify pre‐adapted individuals and genetic variants with potential for resilient crop improvement.…”

Crop Wild Relatives: A Valuable Source of Tolerance to Various Abiotic Stresses

“…Notably, much effort has been undertaken across countries to generate prioritized inventories for crop wild relatives (annual and perennial plants). These aim at proper assessment and efficient conservation, both in situ (land protection) and ex situ (seed banks), of unexplored or underexploited wild genetic resources [ 9 , 178 , 179 , 180 , 181 ]. Breeding programs focusing on introgression of wild genetic material into cultivated crops will result in climate-resilient varieties with low-input requirements.…”