Researchers from various fields of expertise at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) are working together to reduce agriculture-driven
emissions, combatcilimate change, and produce healthier crops. This
multidisciplinary project titled â??Revolutionizing agriculture with
low-emissions, resilient crops� is one of the five flagship winners in
the Climate Grand Challenges competition, which aims to tackle complex
climate challenges and deliver timely revolutionary solutions.

â??Our team's research seeks to address two connected challenges: first,
the need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced by agricultural
fertilizer; second, the fact that the yields of many current
agricultural crops will decrease, due to the effects of climate change
on plant metabolism,� said Christopher Voigt, project lead and professor
in MIT's Department of Biological Engineering. â??We are pursuing six
interdisciplinary projects that are each key to our overall goal of
developing low-emissions methods for fertilizing plants that are
bioengineered to be more resilient and productive in a changing
climate,� he added.

The project includes finding ways to transfer legumes' self-fertilizing
ability to cereal crops to revolutionize the sustainability of food
production.

Using plant biology to address climate change | MIT News | Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
[news.mit.edu]