Plant Breeding

 

Viewing plant breeding from the agricultural perspective, it makes use of principles from a variety of sciences to improve the genetic potential of plants. And this particular process involves combining parental plants to reproduce the next generation with the best characteristics. Breeders are improving plants by choosing those with the greatest potential based on performance information, pedigree, and more sophisticated genetic information. Plants again improve for food, feed, fuel, fiber, shelter, landscaping, eco-systems services and a variety of other human activities. This process also involves the creation of multi-generation genetically diverse populations on which human choice is practiced to create adapted plants with new combinations of specific desirable traits. This choosing process is driven by biological assessment in relevant target surroundings and knowledge of genes and genomes. Progress is assessed based on gain under selection, which is a function of selection intensity, genetic variation and time. This plant breeding concept has been existence and been practiced for thousands of years, nearly the beginning of human civilization. And this is practiced worldwide by individuals like gardeners and farmers, and by professional plant breeders employed by organizations like government institutions, universities, crop-specific industry associations or research centers. The International development agencies believe that breeding new crops is important for food security guarantee by developing new varieties that are higher-yielding, disease-resistant and drought-tolerant or regionally adapted to the different surrounding and growing conditions.

One major technique employed by breeders in the plant breeding process is selected, the process of selective propagation of plants with desirable features and eliminating those with less desirable features. Deliberate interbreeding that’s crossing of closely or distantly related individuals to produce new crop varieties or lines with desirable properties is another technique. Plants are crossbred to introduce traits or genes from one variety or line into a new genetic background. There is what is Classical breeding, this classical breeding relies largely on homologous recombination between chromosomes to generate genetic diversity. The classical plant breeder may make use of a number of in vitro techniques like protoplast fusion, embryo rescue. In this same process, plants can also be crossbred with themselves to produce inbred varieties for breeding. So this plant breeding process as been of benefits to human food production, as the plant Breeding as genetically improved plants for human benefit. Breeding of plant in the world today has become important and unavoidable in order to gain food security.