Major Challenging Constraints to Crop Production Farming System and Possible Breeding to Overcome the Constraints

Abstract

Agriculture is the major economic backbone of the world in improving the livelihood the population and contributing the highest GDP of the world. However, agricultural productivity is limited by diverse biotic and abiotic constraints. Biotic stress is the adverse conditions for crop growth and production caused by biological factors. These are diseases, insects, wild animals, lack of high yielding crop variety and parasitic weeds. These all are the major impeding factors and contributing to the low productivity of crop production. An abiotic stress is the adverse conditions for crop growth and production caused by environmental factors. Such as deficiency or excess of nutrition, moisture, drought, salinity, soil acidity, light, freeze, chill, heat, shortage of agriculture inputs like fertilizers, herbicides and air pollution. All are already important abiotic stress factors that cause large and widespread yield reductions. Crop losses are a major threat to the wellbeing of rural families, to the economy of traders and governments, and to food security worldwide. Agricultural production in the world is characterized by subsistence orientation, low productivity, low level of technology and inputs, lack of infrastructures and market institutions, and extremely vulnerable to rainfall variability. Productivity performance in the agriculture sector is critical to improvement in overall economic well-being in world. Low availability of improved or hybrid seed, lack of seed multiplication capacity, low profitability and efficiency of fertilizer, lack of irrigation development, lack of transport infrastructure, inaccessibility of market and prevalence of land degradation, unfertile soil, over-grazing, deforestation and desertification are among the constraints to agricultural productivity in the world. Future crop yields and global food security may well hinge on the ability of farmers around the world to narrow the gap between current yields and yield potential ceilings, especially as progress in the latter may slow because of climate change and diminishing returns in breeding. Because average crop yields are critical drivers of food prices, food security, and crop land expansion, there is tremendous value in better quantification and understanding of yield gaps. Generally, the causes of climate change, stresses produced due to climate change, impacts on crops, modern breeding technologies, and biotechnological strategies to cope with climate change, in order to develop climate resilient crops. Revolutions in genetic engineering techniques can also aid in overcoming food security issues against extreme environmental conditions, by producing transgenic plants. Overall, improvement in agricultural sustainability by means of increasing yields of low-input production systems is not only possible, but also urgently needed. By using breeding methods that are geared to the common limitations experienced by farmers around the globe, varieties with superior traits and adaptations can be achieved. Increasing the availability of superior varieties specifically bred to low-input systems, either through traditional or advanced breeding methods will improve agricultural sustainability and global resource management, as well as decrease the energy demanded for food production during a time of historic global relevance as population peaks and valuable finite resources decline