Plant breeding is based on understanding genetics and mechanical systems to improve crop production. During the last century, conventional plant breeding, mostly based in the evaluation at the phenotypic level, had been successful in increasing crop yields. Within the last two decades there has been significant crop improvement due to the application of molecular genetics and genomics to improve efficiency and accuracy in plant breeding.
One of the key global challenges of the 21st century is the production of enough food for an ever increasing world population. Agricultural productivity needs to be increased while addressing the issues of scarcity of arable land and water, impact of changing climate and preservation of natural resources. Improvement of crop yields on limited agricultural resources requires concerted efforts using scientific and technological advances in multiple disciplines.
Multidisciplinary approaches are being conducted to enhance crop improvement and meet resource needs. This session will address new plant breeding paradigms through the integration of multiple perspectives. The paradigm shift has occurred through the integration of five key components for crop improvement: 1) continued improvement of genomic tools, 2) information technology including open source data, 3) advanced analytical methods such as mathematical modeling and simulation, 4) adaption of non-crop information, and 5) increased importance of breeding operation enhancement.

• Ju-Kyung Yu(Syngenta Seeds, USA)