Bridging traditional breeding and molecular approaches: routes to sustainable vegetable crop advancement

Ensuring global food security increasingly relies on the rapid advancement of nutrient-rich and climate-adaptive vegetable varieties. Conventional plant breeding, though foundational, is limited by slow selection processes and the gradual narrowing of genetic diversity. The advent of genomic-assisted speed breeding offers an innovative avenue to address these challenges by integrating molecular approaches with traditional breeding frameworks. This review highlights progressive techniques, including haplotype-based selection, high-throughput phenotyping, marker-assisted selection (MAS), and quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, all aimed at enhancing yield potential, nutritional value, and tolerance to environmental and biological stressors. Moreover, genome-editing platforms such as CRISPR/Cas9 facilitate precise modification of target genes, expediting the development of improved cultivars. This paper also underscores the interplay between classical breeding practices and modern genomic tools, while considering ethical and regulatory dimensions. Collectively, this synergistic approach promotes faster genetic improvement, sustainable vegetable crop productivity, and resilience within horticultural systems, thereby contributing to long-term food and climate security.