Sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural sector faces a multifaceted challenge due to climate change consisting of high temperatures, changing precipitation trends, alongside intensified pest and disease outbreaks. Conventional plant breeding methods have historically contributed to yield gains in Africa, and the intensifying demand for food security outpaces these improvements due to a confluence of factors, including rising urbanization, improved living standards, and population growth. To address escalating food demands amidst urbanization, rising living standards, and population growth, a paradigm shift toward more sustainable and innovative crop improvement strategies is imperative. Genome editing technologies offer a promising avenue for achieving sustained yield increases while bolstering resilience against escalating biotic and abiotic stresses associated with climate change. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) is unique due to its ubiquity, efficacy, alongside precision, making it a pivotal tool for Sub-Saharan African crop improvement. This review highlights the challenges and explores the prospect of gene editing to secure the region’s future foods.

This study aimed to evaluate different varieties of groundnut introduced from four breeding programs in West Africa for their stability and adaptability in agro-ecological zones of Niger. The study used a randomized complete block design with three replicates at three locations. Analysis of variance revealed significant variation among varieties and the effect of environment on pod yield was highly significant (P<0.001). GGE biplot analysis was used to identify the best varieties for each environment and assess the stability of the newly introduced varieties. The GGE biplot described all the observed variations and explained 98.42% of the total variation, indicating a strong genotype by environment interaction effect. The evaluation of varietal performance indicated that Pyr-370 and Rafeet Car thrived exceptionally well in Bengou and Magaria, respectively, while El_Tarna exhibited the highest performance at Tarna. Variety SH470P was the most stable and productive among the introduced varieties in the different environments, while ICGV86124 was stable but low yielding. On the other hand, the introduced varieties ICGV86024, ICGV-IS14857 and Pyr-370 demonstrated superior productivity, yet their performance inconsistency underscored inherent instability.

Flooding is a dominant constraint to rice production in lowland and floodplain ecosystems, where stress intensity, timing, and duration vary widely across agroecological zones. This review synthesizes current knowledge on flooding typologies affecting rice, including anaerobic germination failure, flash flooding, stagnant flooding, and deep‐water submergence, and critically examines how rice plants respond at physiological, anatomical, and molecular levels. We integrate evidence on key adaptive mechanisms, including anaerobic metabolism during germination, SUB1‐mediated quiescence under short‐term submergence, SNORKEL‐driven internode elongation in deep‐water environments, aerenchyma development, leaf gas films, and antioxidant defense systems. Particular emphasis is placed on the genetic architecture underpinning these responses, highlighting the successes and limitations of the SUB1 locus and the necessity of multitrait pyramiding to address prolonged, deep, or sequential flooding events. Drawing on case studies from Africa and Asia, the review demonstrates that flooding impacts are strongly context‐specific, shaped by rainfall variability, hydrology, soil properties, and water management infrastructure, with disproportionate socioeconomic consequences for smallholder farmers. We argue that reliance on single‐gene solutions is insufficient under climate change scenarios that intensify flood unpredictability. Instead, resilient rice systems require an integrated strategy combining stress‐tolerant varieties, adaptive crop and nutrient management, and climate‐informed decision‐making. By consolidating physiological insights, breeding advances, and regional flood dynamics, this review provides a targeted framework for developing rice varieties and management options tailored to diverse flooding regimes, with direct implications for food security in flood‐prone regions.

Cowpea ( Vigna unguiculata ) is a vital crop for food security, nutrition, and climate resilience in sub‐Saharan African and other semi‐arid regions. However, its improvement is constrained by the complexity of polygenic traits such as drought tolerance, pest resistance, and seed quality. Conventional breeding, while foundational, remains insufficient to address these challenges at the required pace. Recent advances in multi‐omics technologies, including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, provide new opportunities to dissect complex traits, identify candidate genes, and accelerate the development of resilient, high‐yielding cultivars. This review presents a critical synthesis of current applications of omics technologies in cowpea improvement, highlighting their contributions to stress adaptation, nutritional enhancement, and precision breeding. The review also examines key technical and institutional constraints limiting the adoption of omics‐assisted breeding in cowpea, including inadequate research infrastructure, challenges in multi‐omics data integration, and limited technical capacity across breeding programs in sub‐Saharan Africa. It discusses strategies to address these barriers through regional collaboration, investment in bioinformatics capacity, and the integration of computational approaches into breeding pipelines. Overall, the review concludes that combining multi‐omics technologies with artificial intelligence and machine learning has strong potential to improve genotype–phenotype prediction, accelerate breeding decisions, and support the development of climate‐resilient and nutritionally enhanced cowpea cultivars.