Introduction
Climate change poses a significant and growing threat to global food security. As extreme weather events become more frequent and intense, and as atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels continue to rise, the stability of crop yields and the nutritional quality of food are increasingly at risk. Emerging evidence suggests that developing and deploying climate-resilient crops, particularly when combined with biofortification strategies, may be crucial for safeguarding both harvests and human nutrition.
What are Climate-Resilient Crops?
Definitions and traits
Climate-resilient crops are plants specifically bred or genetically modified to withstand harsh environmental conditions. Unlike traditional varieties, these crops are designed to maintain productivity even under unpredictable weather patterns, such as prolonged droughts or intense heat waves. Key agronomic traits include increased water-use efficiency, heat tolerance during critical growth stages, and robust root systems capable of accessing subsoil moisture during drought. Modern breeding increasingly utilizes genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and advanced phenotyping to identify stress-responsive pathways and accelerate the selection process. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are also being employed to analyze large datasets and predict stress tolerance.
Distinction from biofortification
While climate resilience focuses on agronomic survival and yield stability, biofortification specifically aims to increase the density of micronutrients in the edible parts of the plant. Pairing climate-resilient traits with biofortification is often seen as a way to protect both harvests and nutrient intakes. This integrated approach recognizes that simply stabilizing calorie production isn’t enough; nutritional enhancement is also essential.
Examples of climate-resilient crops include cereals like sorghum and millets, naturally adapted to arid conditions, and drought-tolerant maize varieties developed for Sub-Saharan Africa. Stress-tolerant legumes like pigeon pea and cowpea also fall into this category.
Links between Environment and Nutrient Profiles
Climate stress and plant nutrient content
Climate change can affect crop nutritional quality through multiple interacting stresses – heat, drought, and shifting pest/disease pressures – that alter plant physiology, yield formation, and nutrient allocation. Heat stress during reproductive stages can disrupt pollination and grain filling, while combined heat–drought stress alters photosynthesis, enzyme activity, and nutrient remobilization. Elevated CO2 has also been associated with declines in concentrations of key nutrients, including nitrogen/protein and minerals like iron and zinc. Proposed mechanisms include carbohydrate dilution effects, altered transpiration rates affecting mineral uptake, and changes in gene expression related to nutrient metabolism.
Human nutrition implications
Research indicates that elevated CO2 levels can lead to nutrient “dilution” effects in major staples, reducing protein and mineral content. These effects are particularly concerning in regions where wheat and rice constitute a large share of dietary protein and micronutrient intake. This reduction in essential nutrients threatens to exacerbate the prevalence of anemia and stunting, conditions already affecting billions globally.
Evidence: Do Resilient Crops Improve Nutrition?
Biofortified vs. Resilient traits
Climate-resilient traits stabilize food availability, but don’t guarantee improved nutritional quality unless specifically engineered into the crop. Combining resilience with biofortification can yield synergistic benefits. Climate-resilient crops may improve nutrition indirectly through greater harvests and income, while biofortified climate-resilient crops can directly increase micronutrient intakes.
Human evidence and biomarkers
Studies have begun to quantify the health impacts of these crops. A randomized controlled study in India demonstrated that consumption of iron-biofortified pearl millet significantly improved iron status and reversed deficiency in school-aged children. For non-biofortified improved varieties, evidence centers primarily on household food security outcomes, such as higher food expenditures and increased food security, rather than direct changes in micronutrient biomarkers.
Drought-tolerant maize in sub-Saharan Africa
In Zimbabwe, the adoption of drought-tolerant maize (DTM) resulted in substantially higher maize harvests compared to non-adopters, translating into increased income and extended household food availability. Regional trials have shown that top drought-tolerant hybrids can out-yield farmer varieties by over 35% under low-yield conditions and over 50% under high-yield conditions. However, these studies primarily support food security and income pathways, and do not, on their own, establish micronutrient biomarker improvements from drought-tolerant maize adoption.
Limitations of Current Evidence
There is a lack of long-term data on dietary quality and micronutrient status outcomes directly attributable to the adoption of climate-resilient (non-biofortified) crops. Most impact evaluations focus on yield, income, or food security metrics rather than biochemical indicators of nutrient status. Additional studies are needed to identify more robust biomarkers to track nutritional status during climate shocks, as current anthropometric measurements often fail to capture the immediate physiological impacts of nutrient deprivation.
Implications for Nutrition Policy
Integrating climate-resilient crops into the food system requires investments in post-harvest infrastructure, such as storage and transportation, to reduce food loss and nutrient decay. Effective policy strategies are needed to support both supply-side actions (climate-smart agriculture and scaling biofortification) and demand-side actions that improve access to healthy, sustainable diets. Seed-system and market-shaping interventions can accelerate uptake of nutrient-dense climate-relevant varieties. Policies must also be gender-responsive, recognizing that women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change and malnutrition. Strengthening social protection programs to be ‘climate-smart’ can build resilience among vulnerable populations. These policy directions align with calls to integrate climate and nutrition strategies.
Conclusions
Climate-resilient crops, especially when paired with nutrition-sensitive approaches like biofortification, offer a potent solution to stabilize food systems and support human health amid environmental shocks. However, the magnitude of nutritional benefits depends on combining resilience traits with deliberate nutrient enhancement and ensuring equitable access through supportive food system policies. Agronomic innovation alone is insufficient and must be supported by coherent policies that align supply chain investments in climate-smart agriculture with public interventions that promote healthy, sustainable diets.
