Grand Challenge: Sustainable crop production and food security

Safeguarding future food security for all with sustainably managed nutritious crops in diverse production systems, under a changing climate, with minimal loss to weeds and pathogens

Improve crop yields and nutrition
- Leverage our knowledge of genetic diversity and plant physiology for crop plant improvement
- Reduce crop losses through understanding of pathogen biology, plant resistance, and weed ecology
- Enhance plant health with microbiome management and optimized growing conditions
Develop strategies for reduced-input crop production
- Manage soil health for nutrient retention and beneficial water relations
- Optimize cropping systems for diverse production scales and types (organic, conventional, perennial, annual)
Develop and apply digital technologies for climate responsive precision management of agricultural systems (Digital Agriculture)
- Build systems for plant and soil health monitoring at multiple scales using sensing technologies
- Create and deploy data analysis pipelines and decision support tools

Research highlights: Sustainable crop production and food security

Grand Challenge Research: Sustainable crop production and food security

Putting Farmers at the Center of Innovation

When New York farmers test new practices on their own fields, Louis Longchamps and his team provide the scientific tools to turn those experiments into actionable knowledge. Through Cornell’s Farmers DataLab, Longchamps helps growers collect, organize and analyze farm data, combining farmers’ practical expertise with advanced technologies such as remote sensing, geographic information systems and artificial intelligence.

This farmer-led, scientist-supported approach strengthens decision-making, supports profitable and environmentally responsible farming, and helps innovations spread more effectively across agricultural communities.

An assistant professor of digital agronomy in Cornell’s School of Integrative Plant Science, Longchamps focuses on precision agriculture and on-farm experimentation, developing tools that improve input efficiency, reduce environmental impacts and build more resilient farming systems. But his work reflects a broader vision: empowering farmers to lead agricultural innovation while ensuring research addresses real-world needs.

CALS News: Louis Longchamps’ lab brings scientific tools to farmer-led experimentation

Grand Challenge Research: Sustainable crop production and food security

Staying ahead of superweeds

As herbicide-resistant weeds spread into New York, threatening crop yields and increasing production costs, Cornell weed scientist Vipan Kumar is helping farmers stay ahead of the problem. His research tracks emerging resistant species such as waterhemp, Palmer amaranth and Italian ryegrass, while developing practical strategies to manage them before they become widespread.

Rather than relying on a single solution, Kumar's program combines herbicides with cover crops, crop rotation, mechanical controls and emerging precision agriculture technologies to create more resilient farming systems. As an associate professor in Cornell's School of Integrative Plant Science, Kumar combines research on weed biology and herbicide resistance with extension efforts that help farmers adopt effective, science-based management strategies.

The result is a science-based approach that helps protect crop productivity, reduce environmental impacts and support the long-term sustainability of agriculture across New York and the Northeast.

Research spotlight: Sustainable crop production and food security

From space to farm: readying NASA satellites to help growers

The Cornell-developed “PhytoPatholoBot” detects spectral signatures of three kinds of devastating grape diseases – powdery mildew, downy mildew and grapevine leafroll virus – leading to early management of pathogens without needing farmworkers to spot them. Ultimately, data collected by such robots will help to ground-truth NASA satellite data that could one day detect plant diseases from space.

Applied roboticist Yu Jiang, assistant professor the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Science, developed the PhytoPatholoBot with doctoral student Ertai Liu and plant pathologist Katie Gold, with funding from NASA Acres and U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and VitisGen3.

Learn more about space age data collection and application

Research spotlight: Sustainable crop production and food security

Helping fruit crops weather a changing climate

As climate change brings more erratic weather, Jason Londo is working to understand how fruit crops adapt to environmental stress and how growers can build more resilient orchards and vineyards.

An associate professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science’s Horticulture Section, Londo studies the interaction between plant genetics and the environment, from winter hardiness and dormancy in apples to the remarkable ability of grapevines to thrive under different climate conditions. His research is uncovering the biological mechanisms that help plants respond to temperature swings, drought and other stresses, while identifying traits that could improve future crop performance.

The findings are helping growers make informed management decisions today and may guide the development of more climate-resilient varieties of grapes, apples and other clonally propagated crops in the years ahead.

Research spotlight: Sustainable crop production and food security

New winter barley provides flurry of benefits

LakeEffect, the first winter malting barley released by the Cornell Small Grains Breeding Program, is set to take the New York craft beverage industry by storm. The new variety produces high yields, is disease resistant and has a good malting profile. “What’s truly remarkable is that we took this from first cross to commercial release in just seven years, which is incredibly fast to move a new variety to market,” said Mark Sorrells, professor of plant breeding and genetics in Cornell’s School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, who led the breeding effort.

Research spotlight: Sustainable crop production and food security

Rooted in a Cornell collaboration, New York state is tops for beets

NY is the top beet-producing state, thanks in part to grower support from Cornell researchers working with UV light to suppress the leaf spot fungus using drone images to spot-treat infected plants rather than spraying entire fields. These light treatments may be used in conventional beet production as well as in organic systems where synthetic fungicides are not permitted.

A fungus, Cercospora causes the ugly leaf spots on beets sold into the fresh market, said Sarah Pethybridge, associate professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science’s Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section at Cornell AgriTech. The disease can also defoliate the plants, making it more difficult for mechanical harvesters to pull the vegetables from the soil by their tops, she said.

Learn more about growing better beets in NY

Grand Challenge Research: Sustainable crop production and food security

Breeding vegetables people want to grow and eat

From colorful Galaxy and Yellow Submarine tomatoes to Unicorn kale and the new Northstar broccoli hybrid, plant breeder Phillip Griffiths develops vegetable varieties that combine flavor, appearance, nutrition and performance in the field.

A professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science based at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, N.Y., Griffiths works closely with growers, seed companies and consumers to identify traits that matter most. Then he brings them together in new varieties that help farmers remain competitive, expand choices for gardeners and shoppers, and contribute to more resilient and sustainable food systems.

By combining consumer preferences with agricultural needs, Griffiths is helping ensure that healthier, more productive crops also make it onto people's plates.

Find examples of Griffith's work in these Cornell Chronicle articles:

Grand Challenge Research: Sustainable crop production and food security

Understanding solar's impacts on farmland

As solar development expands across New York, Cornell researchers are helping farmers and policymakers understand both its opportunities and its challenges.

Toni DiTommaso, professor in the Soil and Crop Section, was co-principal investigator in one recent study that found that the shade cast by solar panels can reduce yields of some crops, such as fall-planted radishes and radicchio. Justine Vanden Heuvel, professor in the Horticulture Section is a co-author of another study that suggests agrivoltaic systems could provide Concord grape growers with a valuable new source of income through renewable energy production.

These findings highlight the importance of evaluating solar projects crop by crop and region by region, rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all approach. Drawing on expertise from across SIPS and partner disciplines, Cornell researchers are generating the independent, science-based evidence needed to balance food production, farm profitability and clean energy goals in a rapidly changing landscape.