Maize Under Climate Duress
Corn (maize) is the world’s most widely grown cereal, but it’s increasingly vulnerable to climate extremes. Taller traditional hybrids – often 10-12 feet high – suffer badly in high winds and drought. In the U.S. Corn Belt alone, windstorms flatten millions of corn acres periodically. Meanwhile, hotter, drier conditions driven by climate change threaten yields across continents. This has growers and scientists asking: could short-stature corn be a climate resilience game-changer? And what policy shifts would help scale up this innovation to de-risk maize farming?
Rise of the Short-Stature Hybrid
After decades of work,
