Fig. (2).

The complex nature of drought tolerance needs a multi-pronged approach to develop new varieties with stable and enhanced yield under stress conditions. High throughput genomics and phenomics offer rapid and targeted drought-tolerant varieties and genetic gains via Marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection (GS). The breeding program should be split between a breeding hub (shapes in dark blue) for centralized activities such as genotyping, definition of traits of interest, and maintenance of genetic diversity, databases, and analytical tools, and field sites (shapes in light blue) with well-characterized stress scenarios, weather data, and soil analysis for targeted-site specific phenotyping and stress trials. In this figure, hexagons stand for data required as an input, diamonds are steps to be performed, and rectangles are outputs.