The world is facing starvation as climate change disrupts food production and the population booms and science’s last hope may be locked inside Syria’s forgotten wild plants. [...] ”We’re looking for the crops that show both heat resistance and high yield,” says Francis Ogbonnaya, a wheat breeder with the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas [...] None of the crops produced by ICARDA are genetically modified, and yet there are contained labs set up on the site and introductory work being carried out, in case the process ever becomes more accepted. The scientists are preparing for good reason – GMO technology could take the 12-year process of creating a new crop strain down to as little as a year or two