Read the workshop summary.
CIMMYT, FFAR and KWS hosted the Research Bottlenecks to Crop Productivity workshop in Washington, D.C. on September 4-5, 2024. The workshop brought together researchers, industry partners and funders to explore opportunities for integrated, collaborative solutions for pressing constraints on improving crop productivity. Discussions highlighted both specific scientific gaps and broader systemic needs that must be addressed to accelerate progress.
Despite significant advances in agricultural research, key knowledge gaps remain, particularly in areas such as root structure and function, hormone crosstalk, efficiency of maintenance respiration and source-sink balance. Scientists from major seed companies agreed on these gaps, and leading academics presented potential solutions in Addressing Research Bottlenecks to Crop Productivity. The workshop aimed to prioritize these research gaps, foster collaboration and explore investment opportunities to enhance crop productivity through integrative and systems-based approaches.
Key Takeaways
- Roots, hormone crosstalk, maintenance respiration and source-sink balance remain critical but underexplored drivers of crop performance.
- Systems-level integration—linking genetics, physiology, environment and management—is essential for meaningful gains.
- Modeling and AI/LLM tools can unify bottleneck areas and enable prediction, hypothesis generation and decision support.
- Phenotyping and data standards are foundational gaps; consistent standard operating procedures, shared infrastructure and interoperable platforms are needed.
- Using genetic diversity resources as part of cross-sector collaboration, especially with industry, are key to translating discovery to impact.
- Training in modeling, phenomics and AI is needed to build future research capacity.
This was a closed event.