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Scientists reveal new crop production ideas to overcome food shortages

Researchers from the University of Illinois are exploring increasing Rubisco levels to enhance photosynthesis and elevate crop productivity.

According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UNFAO), global food insecurity is affecting a significant portion of the world’s population, with around 733 million people facing hunger in 2023. The UNFAO defines moderate food insecurity as compromising food quality and variety and reducing food quantity, such as skipping meals. Severe food insecurity is characterised as running out of food and, at worst, going a day or days without food.

Several trends will contribute to increased demand for food in the coming years and change the food security landscape. Namely, these refer to the growing global population, food waste increasing due to more significant urban populations, and rising per capita meat and dairy consumption.

“Food production and distribution systems, along with purchasing power, must outpace this demand to reduce food insecurity,” Coralie Salesse-Smith, postdoctoral research associate for the Long Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told Ingredients Network.

“This is a great challenge, especially considering the influence of climate change on crop productivity, but I believe it can be met through concerted effort from farmers, scientists, engineers, journalists, humanitarians, and politicians worldwide,” Salesse-Smith said.

Salesse-Smith is a co-author of recent research from the University of Illinois exploring increasing Rubisco levels. This includes a February 2025 research article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and a December 2024 review in New Phytologist. Salesse-Smith and her co-authors' research indicates that the upregulation of Rubisco is a promising strategy to achieve increased crop productivity.

Crop productivity as a food security solution

Researchers are exploring ways to improve global food security, with crop performance and management an interesting area undergoing R&D. “Improving crop productivity can help food security by increasing the available food supply,” Salesse-Smith explained.

The University of Illinois research explores the role of the enzyme Rubisco in enhancing photosynthesis and productivity without decreasing nitrogen use efficiency in crop cultivation. By developing more efficient forms of Rubisco, researchers could competitively repress oxygenation, which has the potential to increase photosynthetic productivity by more than 60%.

A recent research focus has been on increasing crop productivity with the changing environment, which includes rising temperatures and increased adverse weather events such as droughts, floods, and violent storms. “It is also critical these needs are met without additional resource use such as land, nitrogen, or water to avoid further exacerbating climate change,” Salesse-Smith added.

“Using synthetic biology to engineer crops with increased photosynthesis and resilience is a key way to address this challenge, allowing more to be produced per unit input of land, water, or other resources,” Salesse-Smith said.

While new technologies are at the fore, these remain largely in the discovery phase and have not been implemented in the food and agricultural environment.

Improving crop productivity

The food science community details many R&D innovations that could help with improving crop productivity. These include genetic engineering to develop climate-smart crops, precision agriculture for targeted application of resources such as water and fertiliser, high-throughput phenotyping to predict crop needs, and vertical farming to optimise space utilisation and allow plant growth in urban areas.

“Some of the greatest challenges will be deregulation of key biotechnologies and access to all of these technologies in countries most affected by food shortages,” said Salesse-Smith.