The article mentions this. The technology was proven on tobacco, only because it is a "model organism" for plants. Researchers are attempting to replicate the results in cowpea, as it is a staple food crop in sub-saharan Africa.

This tech is explicitly being developed for increased crop yields. The results will be transferable to nearly all plant life, as the photosynthesis proteins are the most common proteins in the known universe.

We are refactoring code that is billions of years old, full of evolutionary cruft, to remove the technical debt.