Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance Mechanisms, Water and Global Agriculture (A7) 2011

Plant abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity and heat together with the growing world population and per capita food consumption threaten stable global food availability. Fresh water is becoming a scarce and threatened resource for human health and nutrition, according to United Nations and World Bank reports. In arid regions, > 80 or >90 % of fresh water is used for food production for human nutrition. Furthermore, increasing salinity stress is reducing agricultural production and available crop land. Climate change and the continuing atmospheric CO2 rise will have increasingly profound effects on agriculture, abiotic stress and plant growth in arid regions. Recent research is uncovering a combination of key genes, quantitative trait loci and molecular networks that mediate plant responses to drought, salinity, heat and other abiotic stresses. Furthermore, field research and practices are being developed to cope with the predicted devastating effects of climate change on African agriculture. This conference aims to bring experts in global agriculture close together with researchers making new advances in understanding abiotic stress response mechanisms and networks in plants and will include investigation of major obstacles that will need to be overcome at several relevant levels to address this global challenge.