Grafting vegetables for mitigating environmental stresses under climate change: A review

Abstract

Vegetables are a cornerstone of the human diet, and the importance of vegetables for human health and nutrition cannot be understated. Vegetables are susceptible to a number of biotic and abiotic stressors along with the cumulative pressure of climate change. Climate change is a major driver of the abiotic stress in modern-day vegetable production. Vegetable cropping systems must be resilient to climate change, so that production practices can achieve economic profitability and environmental sustainability. Environmental stressors, such as flooding, drought, and extreme temperatures, pose a severe threat to vegetable crop production, and total crop failures are common. Vegetable grafting, a plant surgical technique that is eco-friendly, rapid, and efficient, is currently the best alternative approach to climate change-resilient plant production that addresses these abiotic stressors. In this review, we document the success of this plant propagation technique using a review of vegetable grafting research results published in the scientific literature.