Breeding to Optimize Agriculture in a Changing World

Breeding to Optimize Chinese Agriculture (OPTICHINA) was a three-year EU–China project launched in June of 2011. As designed, the project acted as a new strategic model to reinforce systematic cooperation on agricultural research between Europe and China. The OPTICHINA International Conference “Breeding to Optimize Agriculture in a Changing World” was held in Beijing, May 26–29, 2014. The conference included six thematic areas: (1) defining and protecting the yield potential of traits and genes; (2) high-throughput precision phenotyping in the field; (3) molecular technologies in modern breeding; (4) plant ideotype; (5) data analysis, data management, and bioinformatics; and (6) national challenges and opportunities for China. The 10 articles collected in this special issue represent key contributions and topics of this conference. This editorial provides a brief introduction to the OPTICHINA project, followed by the main scientific points of articles published in this special issue. Finally, outcomes from a brainstorming discussion at the end of the conference are summarized, representing the authors' opinions on trends in breeding for a changing world.