Improving crop performance under drought – cross-fertilization of disciplinesFTardieuauthorR KVarshneyauthorRTuberosaauthorBetter crop performance in dry environments is imperative for food security in the face of climate change. This has never been as true as in 2017, but the concern has existed for decades. The four InterDrought conferences held since 1995 have addressed issues associated with crop performance under drought with a clear multi-disciplinary approach. During this time Journal of Experimental Botany has been at the forefront in publishing the underlying experimental science encompassing the disciplines and scales of organization required in drought research. We hope that the papers highlighted here will be useful to, and instrumental for, broadening interdisciplinary understanding of drought tolerance.AgricultureDrylands AgricultureDroughtGenetics and GenomicsFood SecurityDrylands2017-03-01Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental BiologyArticle