R&D priorities in crop optimisation for smart protein applications

Today, many plant-based food manufacturers rely on imported protein ingredients due to the limited availability of locally optimised crops with the required nutritional and functional properties. This whitepaper explores how crop optimisation can help bridge that gap by aligning agricultural R&D with downstream food innovation.

Background

Crop optimisation has long been used to improve agricultural outcomes, from yield and resilience to nutrition and processing quality. In the context of smart protein applications, it can help enhance the nutritional quality, functionality, scalability, and affordability of plant-based ingredients used to develop alternatives to conventional meat, egg, and dairy products. India’s biodiversity, agricultural R&D ecosystem, and policy momentum position the country to become a global leader in climate-smart and nutrition-forward protein innovation. This whitepaper outlines 10 priority R&D areas and presents stakeholder-specific recommendations for food and agricultural scientists, industry and government scientific agencies, and funding bodies.

Key themes explored in the whitepaper are:

• Diversifying ingredient sources through indigenous and underutilised crops such as millets, pulses, and pseudocereals
• Improving crop protein quality, digestibility, micronutrient density, and extraction efficiency for plant-based smart protein applications 
• Developing climate-resilient, high-protein crop varieties that maximise protein yield per hectare 
• Advancing fermentation-compatible crops and crop residues for next-generation biomanufacturing 
• Reducing off-flavours and allergenicity at the crop level through breeding, genomics, and gene editing approaches
• Leveraging AI/ML, omics, hydroponics, and precision breeding to accelerate innovation 

A central recommendation of this whitepaper is the establishment of a national ‘smart crops for smart proteins’ initiative, connecting crop breeding, ingredient science, food processing, and translational research across institutions. By aligning crop science with end-product functionality, India can strengthen domestic ingredient supply chains, reduce reliance on imported protein ingredients, create higher-value markets for farmers, and enable scalable and sustainable smart protein production to improve nutrition and food security. This whitepaper serves as a strategic roadmap for researchers, policymakers, startups, industry leaders, and funding agencies working to build India’s next-generation protein ecosystem.