The 7th International Plant Phenotyping Symposium, brings together a multidisciplinary science community of plant biologists, ecologists, engineers, agronomists and computer scientists. In a rich and diverse networking environment we foster knowledge exchange, collaboration and innovation. IPPS 2022 will serve as a platform to discuss and realize options to harness the power of plant phenotyping and contribute to a sustainable future. This international conference brings together prominent speakers from around the globe and offers an excellent network opportunity for companies and other partners from the private sector. Plant phenotyping for a sustainable future: Food security, managing population growth and improving crop yields in the face of climate change are some of the greatest challenges facing our global society. We will need to produce food for 9.7 billion people in a sustainable way by 2050, whilst transitioning from a fossil-based economy towards a bioeconomy to mitigate the effects of global climate change. This will require a fast increase in global crop productivity to produce enough plant biomass to achieve both food and nutrition security, as well as to meet the demands of a future bioeconomy. Crop production must be increased whilst maintaining crop quality. Society will require crops that combine sustainability, efficient use of scarce resources, e.g., water and mineral fertilizer, and are suitable for cultivation schemes and practices that preserve the Earth’s biodiversity. Current intensive cropping systems will need to become more sustainable, and more crop varieties must also meet the needs of the agroecology, organic and urban/vertical farming sectors. “Future-proofed” crops must have good yield stability with a high resilience to adverse climate, volatile weather conditions and biotic stresses. To meet these aspirations, both current and new crop plants need to be optimized and adapted which will require an ultimate effort both from the plant sciences as from the private sector. And in this process, the availability of versatile, high-throughput plant phenotyping methodology and infrastructure will be an absolute requirement for success. For this reason, we are very excited that over 400 scientists and members of the private sector have come to Wageningen to the 7th International Plant Phenotyping Symposium, IPPS2022, to present and discuss their latest results and developments in the field of plant phenotyping and to advance the field further towards a sustainable future.
