Understanding the Concept of Speed Breeding in Crop Improvement: Opportunities and Challenges Towards Global Food Security

Considering fast-changing environment, emerging pathogens, and the imminent need to feed a global population that is predicted to increase to 9–10 billion people by the year 2050, plant breeders are faced with the challenge of exploring more efficient crop improvement strategies. The urgency to enhance crops under these conditions has become a paramount concern for scientists worldwide, as current crop enhancement projects progress at a pace insufficient to meet the growing food demand. Traditional breeding methods, which often take over 10 years to develop high-performing cultivars with desired traits, are proving to be inadequate. However, a new approach known as Speed breeding presents a game-changing opportunity for crop improvement in the face of a changing world offering the potential to significantly accelerate the development, marketing, and commercialization of improved plant varieties. Speed breeding, a methodology that manipulates temperature, light duration, and intensity to accelerate plant development, has emerged as a promising solution for achieving climate resilience, long-term yield, and nutritional security. Recent innovations in breeding technologies, including genotyping, marker-assisted selection (MAS), high throughput phenotyping, genomic selection (GS), overexpression/knock-down transgenic techniques, and genome editing, can be combined with speed breeding to achieve more precise and expedited outcomes in crop enhancement. This review explores the key opportunities and challenges associated with speed breeding to guide pre-breeding and breeding programs. To achieve more efficient outcomes in enhancing major food crops, this review highlights various alternative approaches and strategies adopted for speed breeding. Integrating speed breeding with existing technologies will be essential for future crop breeding success, and concerted efforts and ongoing research holds the potential to pave the way for a resilient and productive agricultural future.