Agricultural Resilience Innovations

Agricultural resilience innovations combine changes in farm management with advances in crop genetics and breeding.

Examples include no-till farming, cover crops, livestock integration, perennial grains such as Kernza, and genetically edited soybeans designed to grow deeper roots, withstand drought, and retain more carbon in soil. Breeding programs are also using genetic diversity in crops such as yams to identify traits suited to changing environments. Their potential benefits must be weighed against questions about yield, disease, permanence of stored carbon, input use, farmer adoption, processing capacity, and market demand.