Combatting drought: a multi-dimensional challenge

Water will be a major limitation to food production in the 21st century, and drought issues already prevail in many parts of the world. Finding solutions to ensure that farmers harvest profitable crops, and secure food supplies for families and feed for animals that will provide for them through to the next season are urgent necessities. The Interdrought community has been addressing this issue for almost 30 years in a series of international conferences, characterized by a multi-disciplinary approach across the domains of molecular biology, physiology, genetics, agronomy, breeding, environmental and social sciences, policy, and systems modeling. This special issue presents papers from the 7th edition of the conference, the first to be held in Africa, that paid special attention to drought in a smallholder context, adding a system' dimension to the crop focus from the previous Interdrought events (Varshney et al., 2018; Hammer et al., 2021).

Automated summary

Water scarcity poses a major challenge for food production globally, with drought already affecting many regions. The Interdrought community has been tackling this issue for almost three decades through interdisciplinary research, encompassing various fields such as biology, genetics, agronomy, and policy. This special issue features papers from the 7th Interdrought conference, which focused on drought in smallholder agriculture and incorporated a systems approach.