drought

Unpredictable heatwaves, droughts, and floods cripple small-scale farmers in Africa, Asia, and South America, who previously produced one-third of the world’s food.

Beneficial traits like drought tolerance are caused by specific genes encoded in a plant’s DNA — which is basically its molecular instruction manual on how to be a plant.

Like, in Mexico, Indigenous farmers have been breeding spineless cacti for centuries as a drought-tolerant crop to feed livestock.

The southwestern United States, southern Africa, and eastern Australia experience longer, more frequent, and more severe droughts.