Unfortunately the breeders must make selective changes for not only temperature but also photoperiod adaptation, drought stress, and changing pest and rhizosphere situations. It will be difficult to develop the new strains ahead of time but it will be possible to create populations having the requisite components so that selection can be practiced forthrightly when the time comes. This must start at the prebreeding level where diversity is infused into the breeding populations. Several forward-thinking breeders are developing new gene pools to this end. I believe it is a given, that commercial companies are not going to use material lacking the yield potential of existing stocks because they must compete for market share on a yield performance basis.
Farmers demand it.
Broadly based genetic populations must be developed and heterotic patterns discovered that produce at current population levels. The public research sector has a responsibility to get to work on a coordinated plan to further develop diverging genepools from which breeders develop inbreds and cultivars. New molecular tools are emerging where genetic diversity can be measured. Along the way, some scientists may find in near or distant relatives major quantitative trait loci, trackable through the new technologies, which will provide useful productivity or quality improvements. The breeder of the future will be more dependent upon the world's germplasm for his crop.