Climate change is causing major challenges for plant breeders. Summers are getting hotter, year on year: this summer, Germany experienced a heatwave with temperatures of up to 40°C.
The resulting drought inevitably affected plants. Given an ample supply of water, these plants can cool themselves via evaporation. However, they cannot do this when under drought stress. This is why plant breeders hope to develop heat-tolerant, drought-resistant plants that can survive with less water whilst still producing a good yield, using the smallest possible amount of fertiliser and pesticides.
The breeders have been receiving support from researchers at Fraunhofer EZRT, where for many years research has been carried out into technologies for determining plant phenotypes. This refers to their external appearance, which includes a multitude of factors such as leaf size, leaf arrangement, root thickness and yield.
“People have been selecting crops based on external characteristics...