Application of Innovative Agronomic Practices for Crop Yield Improvement

A major challenge for the future is to increase crop yield in response to growing population and rising global demand for food, animal feed and fiber. Improvement of agricultural yield requires a large supply of fertilizer that in turn results in higher cost of production, degradation of soil quality in the form of salinization and acidification and contributes to environmental damage such as eutrophication of surface waters and air pollution. Therefore, innovative agronomic practices are needed to increase food production on the limited land resources which are healthier for human consumption, safer for environment and water, energy and cost effective. This review summarizes the current knowledge on the potential engineering of plant membrane transporters which can contribute to food production. We further discuss examples of application of plant transporters in genetically modified plants to improve micronutrient acquisition and enhanced use efficacy and increasing the plant tolerance to saline and acidic soils.