Improving the productivity of cereal crops in South Asia, specifically rice and wheat, has become a focal area for international agricultural research. Rapid population growth combined with an increasing demand for scarce water resources and the projected impacts of climate change on the region, which is already home to 30 percent of the world’s malnourished people, requires the development of new crop varieties that are both higher yielding and tolerant of abiotic stresses including drought, heat, salinity and soil nutrient deficiency. The need to increase productivity is further underscored as the majority of arable land is already being cultivated and is increasingly lost to urbanization and degradation, meaning more grain will have to be produced on less land and in an environmentally sustainable manner.
