Climate resilient crop production: Integrating agronomy, horticulture, plant physiology, genetics and breeding strategies - a review

Abstract

Climate change has emerged as one of the most serious threats to global agricultural sustainability, food security, and ecosystem stability. Rising temperatures, irregular rainfall patterns, drought, salinity, flooding, and increased incidence of pests and diseases are adversely affecting crop productivity worldwide. Developing climate-resilient crop production systems has therefore become an essential strategy for ensuring sustainable agricultural development under changing environmental conditions. Climate resilience in agriculture refers to the capacity of crops and farming systems to withstand, adapt to, and recover from climatic stresses while maintaining productivity and resource-use efficiency. The present review highlights the integration of agronomy, horticulture, plant physiology, genetics, and crop breeding approaches for developing climate-resilient agricultural systems. Agronomic strategies such as conservation agriculture, integrated nutrient management, precision farming, mulching, and efficient irrigation practices significantly contribute to stress mitigation and sustainable resource management. Horticultural interventions including protected cultivation, canopy management, grafting, and microclimate modification also enhance crop adaptation to environmental stresses. Plant physiological mechanisms such as osmotic adjustment, antioxidant defense systems, photosynthetic regulation, and hormonal signaling play critical roles in stress tolerance under drought, salinity, and heat stress conditions. Advances in genetics and molecular breeding, including marker-assisted selection, genomic selection, quantitative trait loci mapping, CRISPR-Cas genome editing, and transgenic technologies, have accelerated the development of climate-resilient crop varieties with improved tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. The review further discusses the importance of integrating multidisciplinary approaches to improve crop productivity, nutrient-use efficiency, and environmental sustainability. Emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, remote sensing, high-throughput phenotyping, and climate-smart agriculture are transforming modern crop improvement and farm management systems. The article emphasizes that future agricultural resilience depends on combining traditional knowledge with advanced scientific innovations to develop sustainable and adaptive crop production strategies capable of addressing global climate challenges.