Generation Z agriculture: Technological innovations driving sustainable plant production

Plants are essential biotic components of Earth that sustain life by producing food, regulating the environment, and transferring energy within ecosystems. Over the past decade, substantial progress in plant science and agricultural technology has transformed traditional agricultural systems, increasing agricultural productivity, improving resource-use efficiency, and promoting sustainable practices. Innovations in machinery, seed improvement, irrigation management, and fertilizer optimization have significantly enhanced crop yields and land-use efficiency over the past five decades. Agriculture is gradually adopting new technologies (robotics, stack-gene technology, three-dimensional bioprinting, and global positioning system–enabled precision farming) to increase productivity while reducing environmental impacts and addressing labor shortages. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, CRISPR/Cas9 (where CRISPR and Cas9 denote clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9, respectively) gene editing, nano-bionics, vertical farming, and farming in space have the potential to maximize resource use, improve resilience to climate change, and ensure the continued sustainability of food production. This review examines current technological trends in agriculture and plant sciences, emphasizing their contributions to agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability, and the socioeconomic well-being of farmers. It also examines how these technologies could be used to address future global food security and environmental sustainability challenges.