According to the United Nations, the world’s population is projected to reach nearly ten billion by 2050.1 Against this backdrop, problems such as climate change, soil degradation, water scarcity, new and aggressive plant diseases, and political instability threaten the world’s existing food production systems.
Traditionally, the solution has been to improve chemical protection for plants and to increase the usage of current resources. However, this approach does not necessarily scale—for instance, many conventional herbicides and fungicides have either become forbidden or lost their efficacy.2 And although changes in consumer habits, such as the rapid growth of the plant-based food market,3 have helped reduce the challenge, they have not massively changed the situation.
That said, recent developments in (bio)technology4 are giving industry players hope. Biotechnology combines natural and engineering sciences to create products and technologies in human and animal health, agriculture, and the environment. In terms of safeguarding food systems, these developments include the following:
- more-targeted chemical protection for plants and better understanding of the possibilities of combinations of chemicals based on big data and advanced statistical modeling
- bioengineering of plants to avoid the need for chemical protection
- improved field management through precision farming
Only the right combination of these shifts can make the difference that farmers and crop protection and tech companies alike are looking for. This article provides overviews of the biotech solutions possible today and offers guidance on how to combine fit-for-purpose solutions that can ultimately help safeguard the world’s food systems.
Planting the seeds: Potential next-generation tech solutions
Advancements in biotech are still relatively nascent when compared with industries with accelerating rates of tech adoption, such as pharmaceuticals. Yet the availability of genetic engineering, GPS, and AI, as well as increased computing power, have opened up the possibility to drastically improve solutions in biotech, which have traditionally depended on time-intensive test-and-learn approaches.
More-targeted chemical protection for plants
Regions with traditionally strong agricultural outputs are contending with fungal infections. In fact, a recent study found that nearly half the wheat crops in Europe contained fungal toxins.5 However, analysis of the composition of current herbicides and fungicides has led to a much better understanding of these substances’ efficacy and possible side effects. For example, one study found that using chemicals has had positive side effects, not only limiting losses from plant disease but also increasing the yields of traditional crops by an average of 1.75 percent.6
Bioengineering of plants
The challenges of population growth and climate change will likely require bioengineering of plants in the years to come to improve attributes such as drought resistance at a much larger scale. To give just one example, a recent Nature Biotechnology article outlines how wheat could be bred to develop a resistance to a highly virulent fungal pathogen threatening cereal production.7
Improved management of fields
Precision farming and data integration allow farmers to optimize the coverage and the frequency of working in fields.8 And in certain geographies and for certain products, vertical farming can improve water consumption by 98 percent.9 New solutions such as farm robotics or advanced prediction can further increase the yield for farmers.
One example is the integration of precise weather forecasting models to protect potatoes in the Netherlands. Because the efficacy of fungicides is highly dependent on weather conditions, these models help farmers optimally schedule the application of fungicides.10 This modeling has reduced the need for fungicides by up to 25 percent.
Fortifying biotech: What’s needed in the years to come?
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to safeguarding the world’s food systems. With this in mind, the integration of different combinations of solutions is the key to ensuring real adoption and fit-for-purpose solutions. Indeed, the first successful examples have already shown what could be possible on a larger scale.
Transparent communication between all players along the food supply chain—including farmers, food producers, regulators, and end consumers—and identification and remediation of side effects are key aspects of a successful expansion of modern solutions to further geographies. Key aspects of future resilience should also be acknowledged because challenging geographies such as Africa or the Middle East could be able to overcome challenges in their food supply and ensure greater resilience of their supply chain.
Biotech has the potential to revolutionize the way we produce our food and to help solve the challenges of worldwide population growth, climate change, and other threats. Doing so, however, requires significant investments in R&D and infrastructure, as well as the right economic setup to foster the growth of start-ups in this space.
The recent advancements in biotechnology we outline here offer promising solutions to the challenges that global agriculture faces. By strategically integrating biotechnology and other next-generation agriculture techniques, food producers can create more-resilient and more-sustainable food systems that meet the demands of a growing population while reducing environmental impact.
Henning Soller is a partner in McKinsey’s Frankfurt office, where Malin Fiedler is a consultant. Brande Wulff is an associate professor of plant science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
1 “Global issues: Population,” United Nations, accessed March 19, 2025.
2 For more, see “Slowing and combating pest resistance to pesticides,” Environmental Protection Agency, updated January 30, 2025.
3 Ben Pierce et al., “U.S. retail market insights for the plant-based industry,” Good Food Institute, accessed March 19, 2025.
4 For more on biotechnology in food, see Daniel Aminetzah, John Levene, Tom Brennan, and Kate Toews, “Ingredients for the future: Bringing the biotech revolution to food,” McKinsey, March 13, 2025.
5 “Harmful fungal toxins in wheat: A growing threat across Europe,” University of Bath, December 15, 2022.
6 Alison E. Robertson et al., “Effect of foliar fungicides applied at silking on stalk lodging in corn,” Plant Health Progress, 2020, Volume 21, Number 1.
7 Ming Luo et al., “A five-transgene cassette confers broad-spectrum resistance to a fungal rust pathogen in wheat,” Nature Biotechnology, May 2021, Volume 39, Number 5.
8 For more on precision farming, see David Fiocco, Vasanth Ganesan, Maria Garcia de la Serrana Lozano, and Hussain Sharifi, “Agtech: Breaking down the farmer adoption dilemma,” McKinsey, February 7, 2023.
9 Jaime Burrows, “How vertical farming can save water and support food security,” World Economic Forum, June 20, 2023.
10 K. M. Baker et al., “Improved weather-based late blight risk management: Comparing models with a ten-year forecast archive,” The Journal of Agricultural Science, March 2015, Volume 153, Number 2.