Sunflower under stress: sustainable breeding solutions for drought adaptation and nutrition quality improvement

Climate change-induced drought is a critical challenge to global agriculture, particularly in semi-arid and arid regions. Sunflower, a moderately drought-tolerant oil crop, offers substantial potential for sustainable adaptation due to its deep root system and ecological flexibility. However, extended drought stress negatively impacts both yield and oil quality. Simultaneously, enhancing the nutritional value of sunflower oil remains a breeding priority to meet global dietary demands. Sustainable breeding solutions aim to develop sunflower genotypes that are both drought-resilient and nutritionally improved. This involves harnessing genetic diversity and employing advanced breeding techniques targeting traits such as drought escape, avoidance, and tolerance. Integrative “-omics” approaches—genomics, phenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and epigenomics—enable deeper insight into complex traits and their interactions with environmental stress. High-throughput phenotyping, especially image-based methods, allows non-invasive and scalable analysis of plant traits, facilitating selection for root architecture, water use efficiency, and seed composition. These tools support the development of climate-smart, nutrient-enriched sunflower genotypes, aligning with global goals for environmentally sustainable agriculture and food security.