Global food production must increase significantly to feed the projected 10 billion people by 2050, despite challenges such as climate change, land degradation, and emerging pests and diseases. Traditional plant breeding methods, while successful in developing high-yielding varieties, are time-consuming and require multiple growing seasons, often taking 8–12 years to develop new varieties. This slow pace is inadequate given the urgency of food security and rapidly changing environmental conditions. Recent advances in rapid generation advancement techniques combined with genomic tools such as genomic selection, marker-assisted selection, and genome editing offer unprecedented opportunities to accelerate breeding cycles and increase genetic gain. This review explores the principles of rapid generation advancement by manipulating environmental conditions to shorten generation times, the integration of genomic approaches to enhance selection precision, and the application of multi-omics for comprehensive trait dissection. Real-world successes in key crops and the challenges ahead are discussed, highlighting the potential of these integrated technologies to revolutionize crop improvement and address global food security challenges

climate-resilient breeding, drought and heat tolerance, genomic selection, marker-assisted selection, and genome editing

Rapid generation advancement and genomics are complementary forces that, when integrated, revolutionize crop improvement by significantly shortening breeding cycles and enhancing selection accuracy. This synergy is critical under climate change scenarios, enabling rapid development of resilient and nutrient-rich varieties. The future lies in fully integrated, automated pipelines combining speed, precision, and sustainability to meet global food demands

Vinodh Kumar P.N., Sahana Police Patil and Keerthi G.M. (2023). Rapid Generation Advancement in the Genomic Era: Unlocking Breeding Efficiency. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(8): 617-620