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Genetic modification can improve crop yields — but stop overselling it

With a changing climate and a growing population, the world increasingly needs more-productive and resilient crops. But improving them requires a knowledge of what actually works in the field.
  1. Merritt Khaipho-Burch

    1. Merritt Khaipho-Burch is a PhD candidate in the Section of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, USA.

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  2. Mark Cooper

    1. Mark Cooper is professor of prediction-based crop improvement in the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation and deputy director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

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  3. Jose Crossa

    1. Jose Crossa is a distinguished scientist and biometrician at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and professor at the Post-Graduate College (COLPOS) in Montecillo, Mexico.

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  4. Natalia de Leon

    1. Natalia de Leon is a professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences at the University of Wisconsin– Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

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  5. James Holland

    1. James Holland is a research geneticist at the USDA-ARS Plant Science Research Unit and the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

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  6. Ramsey Lewis

    1. Ramsey Lewis is professor of plant breeding in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

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  7. Susan McCouch

    1. Susan McCouch is a professor of plant breeding and genetics at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.

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  8. Seth C. Murray

    1. Seth C. Murray is a professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA.

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  9. Ismail Rabbi

    1. Ismail Rabbi is a molecular geneticist and plant breeder at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria.

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  10. Pamela Ronald

    1. Pamela Ronald is a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center at University of California, Davis, California, USA, and an investigator at the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.

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  11. Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra

    1. Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra is a professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology and the Center for Population Biology at the University of California, Davis, California, USA.

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  12. Detlef Weigel

    1. Detlef Weigel is director of the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.

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  13. Edward S. Buckler

    1. Edward S. Buckler is a research geneticist at the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and an adjunct professor in the Section of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.

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Aerial view of green corn fields on a farm in Brazil on a cloudy day

Maize fields near Londrina in southern Brazil. Credit: Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg via Getty

Over the past two decades, many journals, including this one, have published papers describing how modifying one or a few genes can result in substantial increases in crop yields (see ‘Genes and yield’). The reported increases range from 10% to 68%, and the crops analysed include rice, maize (corn), tobacco and soya bean1–4.

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Nature 621, 470-473 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02895-w

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Competing Interests

M.K.-B. has accepted an offer of employment from Corteva Agriscience, due to begin in April 2024. D.W. holds equity in Computomics, which advises plant breeders. D.W. advises KWS SE, a plant breeder and seed producer.

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