[rfreytag]

Good points but you could still engineer the plants to: grow in saline conditions (I think that is being pursued), over wider range, to resist drought or flood better, defeat pests and blights (rust was mentioned in the article), and come back from being downed by weather. The goal being to more frequently achieve maximal yield by increasing the range and durability of the crop.

The last bit would be to eliminate the need to sow the crop by having wheat be a perennial. That would greatly reduce the energy input to the crop.

Plenty more to do.