With the world on track for an average temperature increase of more than 1.5 ºC and the population burgeoning toward 10 billion by 2050, farmers need new tools to meet increasing food demand and adapt to climate change. Some of those tools may be hidden in the biodiversity of crops themselves, or their wild relatives, as some species and cultivars have genes that confer tolerance to climatic stress or disease resistance that crop breeders can use to develop more robust, resilient varieties.
![Roughly the length of a finger, the insects fly together by the millions and devour crops. [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]](https://storage.googleapis.com/cgiarorg/2024/04/Tiksa-Negeri-Reuters-640x428.png)