Mitigating Climate Warming Impacts on Maize Grain Yield: A Focus on Grain Filling

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a vital crop worldwide, playing a critical role in ensuring food security (FAO, 2021). However, with increasing populations and climate change (Lobell et al., 2011; Schauberger et al., 2017; IPCC 2021), global food security concerns are on the rise. Climate warming is expected to result in more frequent and severe heat stress incidents, posing a serious risk to crop production (Ben-Air et al., 2018; Kang et al., 2018; Waldhoff et al., 2020; Jägermeyr et al., 2021). As grain weight is a crucial factor in grain yield formation, it is sensitive to temperature changes (Gallagher et al., 1976). Therefore, it is essential to develop robust adaptation and management strategies to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate warming, particularly during the reproductive stage, especially for grain filling (Challinor et al., 2016).