Plant stress physiology: safeguarding food security in a changing climate

The brunt of climate change in the coming decades will be felt most acutely in the Global South, comprising Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where nearly two-thirds of the world's crop yield by volume is produced annually (Zsögön et al., 2022). Brazil, for instance, is the world's largest producer of soybeans, sugarcane, coffee, and orange juice (FAO, 2022). Training the next generation of crop physiologists is therefore essential to address these pressing challenges. At the Graduate Program in Plant Physiology at the Federal University of Viçosa, in Minas Gerais, Brazil, we are strongly committed to this mission. In line with this commitment, from 7 to 11 October 2024 we hosted the 19th Brazilian Congress of Plant Physiology (https://cbfv.sbfv.org.br/). This longstanding event brings together domestic and international students, researchers, and stakeholders from both academia and industry. This Special Issue features a diverse set of contributions, some of which were presented during the event, which was generously sponsored by the Journal of Experimental Botany (JXB).