Plant biotechnology helps sustainable vegetable breeding

The rapid surge in global population, increasing demand for high-quality nutritious food, and climate crisis have posed a significant threat to sustainable vegetable production systems. In the era of climate change, the future of sustainable agriculture relies on breeding of nutrient rich, high yielding and climate resilient vegetable cultivars to meet the global challenges of food and nutritional security. Historically, conventional breeding has proved instrumental in enhancing the crop genetic gains and meeting the global food demand. However, addressing the issues of food and nutritional security under environmental constraints, understanding the nature of complex traits, and delivering climate resilient cultivars at a faster rate, necessitates the adoption of modern biotechnological tools. This comment article provides an integrated perspective on how biotechnology has a helpful role in reshaping vegetable breeding for sustainable agriculture. Further, the progress of both established and emerging technologies, such as genomics assisted breeding and genome editing in reshaping vegetable breeding, are critically examined.