The world is getting hotter. That’s not news — but the urgency of adapting agriculture to climate change is becoming more pressing by the day. For researchers like Amaka Ifeduba, the challenge of developing heat-tolerant potato varieties isn’t just about yields — it’s about food security.
“The world is becoming hotter and hotter. Global warming is real,” she told Seed World at last year’s National Association for Plant Breeding (NAPB) conference in St. Louis, Miss. “There are regions already experiencing extreme heat, and it’s getting worse. As breeders, we have a responsibility to develop crop varieties that can still thrive in these harsh environments and produce enough food.”
By 2050, the world will need to produce significantly more food than it did in 2005. Without heat-tolerant crops, food shortages could become catastrophic. “You don’t want to plant crops and end up with nothing.”
But despite the importance of agricultural research, Ifeduba is choosing to step away from the lab and into the world of science communication — a move driven by a personal mission that began long before her PhD.
Growing up in Nigeria, she witnessed firsthand the effects of old infrastructure on farmers. “During the rainy season, there’s an abundance of food — so much that it goes to waste because there’s no technology to process it. Then comes the dry season, and those same farmers who had food to spare suddenly have nothing to eat or sell,” she says.
This experience fueled her desire to advocate for agricultural development, but she quickly realized that science alone wouldn’t be enough. “I needed to do something to amplify their voices,” she explains. Pursuing a PhD in plant breeding was her way of gaining credibility, but her true goal was always to bridge the gap between researchers and the public.
Now, she’s turning her attention to communications — and she has strong advice for other researchers: “We have to be intentional about how we communicate our science. Most scientific papers are written for scientists, not for the public. If the layperson can’t understand what we’re doing or why it matters, how can we expect them to care?”
She believes the solution lies in simplicity. “Don’t use complicated jargon just to sound important. If there’s a simpler way to say something, say it simply. Otherwise, we risk losing the people we’re trying to help.”
—This interview was recorded at last year’s National Association for Plant Breeding annual conference. To register for this year’s meeting visit the website.
