Developing regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, are rapidly growing in population. In sub-Saharan Africa, 215 million people are currently malnourished. In these areas, the poor environmental conditions for agricultural production and the vulnerability to climate change make agricultural productivity low. Hence, there is a need to develop crops with improved tolerance to adverse environments and climate change. To ensure food and nutritional security, we have been working on improving crops such as rice and soybean using marker-assisted selection and biotechnology. Biotechnology, especially genetic modification, is beingused to develop crops that have increased tolerance to adverse environmental conditions such as drought. We have promoted international collaborative research projects to enhance the drought tolerance of globally important crops such as rice, wheat, and soybean. Throughout the project, we have shown that overexpressionof genes encoding key stress-related transcription factors and enzymes improves drought tolerance intransgenic crops such as rice and soybean. We hope that biotechnology-based agricultural research effortsand biotechnology crops can contribute to the security of food and nutrition in developing regions andglobally.