GMO: when you don't have time to develop new strains "naturally."
New crop varieties 'can't keep up with global warming'
While this subject is far removed from any expertise that I may have, I can't help but wonder if this isn't an example of propaganda favoring GM crops?
While I concur that policy makers decision to rely on GMO crops to combat climate change is a bad idea; nevertheless, the linked reference indicates that the development of climate change resistant crops is falling behind policy maker assumptions; which increases the probability of increasing famine in coming decades:
Edit: I forgot to mention that the researchers have suggested that as an alternative to GMO use, heat tolerant crops could be more naturally developed by setting-up greenhouses in the likely affected countries now so that in a few decades they would have enough naturally selected heat resistant native crop seeds, but due to "othering" no policy makers are providing funding for such an extensive development of greenhouses.
A. J. Challinor et al, Current warming will reduce yields unless maize breeding and seed systems adapt immediately, Nature Climate Change (2016). DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3061
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate3061.htmlAbstract: "The development of crop varieties that are better suited to new climatic conditions is vital for future food production. Increases in mean temperature accelerate crop development, resulting in shorter crop durations and reduced time to accumulate biomass and yield. The process of breeding, delivery and adoption (BDA) of new maize varieties can take up to 30 years. Here, we assess for the first time the implications of warming during the BDA process by using five bias-corrected global climate models and four representative concentration pathways with realistic scenarios of maize BDA times in Africa. The results show that the projected difference in temperature between the start and end of the maize BDA cycle results in shorter crop durations that are outside current variability. Both adaptation and mitigation can reduce duration loss. In particular, climate projections have the potential to provide target elevated temperatures for breeding. Whilst options for reducing BDA time are highly context dependent, common threads include improved recording and sharing of data across regions for the whole BDA cycle, streamlining of regulation, and capacity building. Finally, we show that the results have implications for maize across the tropics, where similar shortening of duration is projected."
See also the linked article entitled: "Crop breeding is not keeping pace with climate change"
http://phys.org/news/2016-06-crop-pace-climate.htmlExtract: "Crop yields will fall within the next decade due to climate change unless immediate action is taken to speed up the introduction of new and improved varieties, experts have warned."